Five Seconds To Death
by lifelesslyndsey
Summary: She was suppose to be his, but he'd never be hers. When there is no where left to run, Jasper turns to the last hope he has, Peter. It can never be her, when it's always been him. Or can it? Confliction.Denial.And a curious newborn Bella.*SLASH* JxP-JxB ON HIATUS.
1. Chapter 1

**Five Seconds To Death Chapte**r 1/? (Prologue)

**Author **: Lifeless Lyndsey

**Pairing:** This was tough to pick. Mainly, it's JasperxBella through the whole fic, with a side of JasperxPeter, PeterxBella, JasperxPeterxBella (take your pick. it rotates)

**Warning: **M for language, lemons, slash, possible threesomes, possible gore.

**Word Count:** Just south of 3k

**Beta:** VampishVixen - the only beta for me. Really, I should put a ring on it'.

**Disclaimer:** I own nearly nothing , not the characters, not the Bella, not Jasper, but maybe a little bit of the Peter.

**A/N:** I think you can read this story without it, but reading this is actually sort of a sequel to my JasperxBella o/s "Mouth". So you should read that too. You don't have to, but I think you want to, so you should. Do it. Yeah. Take in mind that this is a Prolgue, as well, so it reads way differently then other chapters. Don't mean to throw people off.

Also, Hit and Run is still my priority fic, but this one *should* in theory, update once weekly.

**Prologue**

**Bella**

Every nerve in my body was on fire, alight with sensations that did not belong. Delight sang through my blood where fear should have been. I wasn't afraid, I was hopeful. I could feel the adrenalin pumping through my veins, sending my heartbeat to new heights, humming in my chest. The droplet of blood sliding down my index finger was cold compared to the heat of my skin. God, it was torture, a sweet bliss I'd welcome again; that moment before vicious relief, much like the build up of an orgasm. I knew, of course, that within seconds, Edward would steal me away from danger, and tuck me into bed safe from the world. But I could _hope_.

I could hope that his steel fucking resolve, for which I hate him for more each day, would shatter, just this moment, and give me a forever in the form of teeth and venom. One second...just one second had ticked by since paper parted flesh.

It pained me somewhat to admit that the forever I pictured did not have him in it.

All the gold around me faded to night, seven pairs of pupils growing to the size of coins, reflecting my anticipation in there murky depths. Shoulders tensed, trained bodies snapping to stillness only the inhuman could manage. I wanted that, _fuck please_ I wanted that, and so much more.

I suppressed the smile that touched my lips, the shiver of delight as the blood slipped to the web between my fingers, racing towards my palm with the 2nd second, as if to measure time in inches of my blood. Hope was red, and wet in my hand.

"No!" Edward growled, shocking me from my thoughts with an abrupt trip into the dining table. Glass shattered, mixing blood and crystal, crunching beneath my palms as I threw out my hands to catch myself. The 3rd second was acknowledged with the echo of snarls and snaps, and blood laced with adrenalin and need so thick that even I could smell it in the air; copper and salt.

The world ticked slower in those few moments, those seconds passing in fury and confusion, and I felt the race of emotions; confliction mixing in my body like poison and passion. The dangerous taste of fear filled my mouth when I looked up to see the snapping, snarling jaw of Jasper, desperate to sink those pearly whites into my flesh. And though Edward was gorgeous, nothing had ever seemed so terrifyingly beautiful then Jasper mad with blood lust. I wondered if he could feel it my desperate delightthat this might actually be happening, and that it might actually be _him_? I wanted it to be him, so bad I could taste it. Could he feel how much I loved him for what he was in that moment, in that second? The monster he had become? I loved the monster as much as I loved the man; anyone who didn't, didn't love Jasper at all.

This was worth it. He was worth it. All of it, everything, the pain I'd feel, the pain I'd suffered, the waiting, God! The fucking waiting. He was worth it. We were worth it.

His eyes were black, dark lashes framing them like shadows, every muscle in his compact, wiry body rippling with intent. He was a warrior, at war with himself, half torn between tearing into every vampire that kept him from his prey, or getting as far from my blood as possible. My blood that now crept through the cracks of the hardwood floors towards him, as if to call him, beckon him, begging him to come closer.

_ Do it, do it, God, please do it, let me have this, let me have you, you want to, I want to. Do it, do it, do it! _

It screamed in red, glinting off the embedded crystal in my flesh. Four seconds now; four seconds since we descended into this madness. We had reached a blood red Wonderland in the Cullen house dining room and we were all mad here.

His eyes caught mine, heavy with panic, fear, and question. A little thrill of anticipation shot through me, and I pleaded wordlessly that he just do it, set me free. Suddenly, as if a cord snapped, Carlisle and Emmett were on their backs in a pile, and Rosalie was slammed against the wall with a snarl. Jasper pounced with all the feline grace of a lion, springing forward to crouch over his prey, over me. It was time. The fifth second ticked on.

His thighs straddled mine, but he was gentle, cradling my neck in his cool, wide palms. His eyes were questions, his jaw quivering, wanting, needing almost as much as I. A flash of white startled me, but did not startle Jasper. He was prepared for it, for the attack, like any seasoned war veteran would be, coupled with the feline reflexes of an old and knowing vampire.

The hand that did not hold me to him snapped out grasping the sparkling, hard expanse of his brothers flesh, bringing it closer, as if to ask me, warn me, _something_. But I couldn't hear, couldn't think straight. Edward's pleading face was proffered to me like an offering, a sacrifice. And it was, I realized, a sacrifice.

Worry etched Edward's beautiful, androgynous feature, his face caged in the long, spindly fingers of Jasper. He was pleading, every word on his lips carrying into the night unheard. At least by me.

All I could see was Jasper. And it wasn't the first time.

Jasper held him too close to ignore, but it wasn't Edward I wanted, and all I would see in his darkened eyes would be a reflection of my guilt. This wasn't what Edward wanted, wasn't what he would give me, but I wanted it anyways, and Jasper was offering. He was offering me so much more than immortality; a very short history of words once said and a moment we never spoke about in a hotel in Phoenix. We were bartering silently. A taste of my blood for your venom. The silent _'just don't kill me'_ was there, too.

"Do it, Jasper," I whispered, but it could have been a scream to any vampire. "I want this, you know I want this. I want you. Do it, please."

Edward's eyes were wide now, the _'no'_ on his lips dying in a wave of lethargy even I felt. He slumped to the floor beside me, fingers twitching against the emotional bonds that bound him.

"Don't fight it, Darlin'," Jasper purred, bringing about a strange, misplaced bout of arousal running through my body along with everything else I was feeling all at once. Jasper chuckled, "Mmhmm. Happy Birthday, Sugar."

But the words were deader than the man that held me, his teeth slicing through my skin with surgical precision. Oh did it hurt, burning liquid fire through my body. It hurt like a bitch, like death should, I thought; but it was a pain I welcomed, like a mother might feel about child birth. For it brought with it something I had longed for, begged for; something denied to me until this moment. The thing I wanted above all else.

_ Jasper. _

And my forever.

That I could have both things made me smile, even in my haze.

Blood was replaced with fire, but if the sudden arching of my back was mistaken for pain, I could not be blamed. It did hurt, combustion from the inside out, as if my body was imploding; one thousand tiny suns, burning brightly inside me. Yes, it hurt, but there were parts of me that felt so deliciously good, I knew they could not be mine.

_Jasper_, oh all that was holy, his hips were pressed firmly against mine, hiding an erection that I felt to my navel, from all lethargic onlookers. His passion for this, his pleasure, it was delicious, off setting the mind-boggling pain that wracked my body as well.

I was no masochist, but the sensations were so wholly separate that it was impossible to combine them. It was all I could do to focus on that torturously sweet ache and not grind my hips any more than what could be expected from a girl having her life sucked from her throat. My moans were mixed in pain and pleasure, but this was a secret only Jasper knew and for that I was grateful. He was easing the pain for me the only way he knew how, and I couldn't blame the man for finding enjoyment in it too. And if I found a secret thrill knowing that Jasper loved this? Well, that was my own damn secret.

And suddenly, the pull of my blood receded, even if the blood did not. I felt the slick, wetness of a tongue dance across my throat, healing wounds and then some. Jaspers strong hand still cradled my neck like a lover might, though I had no knowledge of such things. That was a bitter thought. His eyes were red when they looked at mine, obvious worry there, that he might have made a grievous error, a mistake he couldn't take back.

"Love..." I wheezed past the fire, desperate to assuage his guilt. The worry receded, encompassed by something else entirely, but I was too far gone then, to think, to care, to know anything but the profound flooding of fire.

**Jasper**

The taste of faith and blood assaulted my mouth; a toxic combination contaminating the air in the room, heavier than cheap perfume. She smelled of sin and hope, her outstretched hand proffered like an angel come to take me home. I wanted nothing more than to kiss that mouth, but there were more imminent things to do. The pin prick of red that had brought me to this point of growls and snarls welled against her flesh, sliding down her pale finger and against her palm, cupped like the Fountain of Youth, begging me to drink from the rivers until they ran dry.

Trust. She wanted this. The anticipatory thrill of promise glowed inside of her like the brightest star known to man, burning with hope and desire. So much fucking _hope_. Every vampire in the room knew she wanted this, as well as they knew they could not stop me, should I find myself giving her what she wanted.

What _I_ wanted, really, for we were in unison in our desires. She offered blood for bite, for the promise of forever. There would be no guilt, I thought, at this unfortunate slip up, not when her pretty brown eyes were pleading with me, begging me to take her. It was the trust, the heady scent of trust that sent me pouncing through the air, throwing off everybody that touched me along the way.

The blood overwhelmed. I could feel the fear and desire in Edward as he willed himself to find the well of restraint that ran so deep inside him. It was too much, and a lesser man would have caved sooner, but not Eddie boy, no. He would go to any means to keep himself golden, to keep his girl alive. _His_ girl. I laughed. Desperate to space himself from her blood, he thrust her aside, slamming her against the dining room table.

His mistake was realized too late, beneath the crunch of flesh and glass, thick rivets of blood bleeding between the floorboards like outstretched fingers beckoning forward. Bella looked up, hands pressed against the sharp crystal shards, no fear in her eyes, just overwhelming awe.

She was not prey, and the predatory response to her blooded ebbed, leaving me instead with my own personal desires; not the blood-thirst that had me more than ready to tear my family apart. The want was no less, but the reasons were different. I wasn't a monster here, I was a promise.

Her neck was hot beneath my palm, pulse hammering against my thumb. The sweat on her brow was laced with adrenalin and trust. I would not kill Bella; no, the unspoken promise between us was loud enough. The warm press of her body beneath me reminded me that Bella was not a nameless victim but tangible, real to me.

Our bodies met at every angle, my chest heaved as if to remind her to breathe, breathe in the cool scent of my own needless breath. A growl emanated from my throat, the instinctual response to impending threat. He thought himself swift but his speed was nothing to me. My fingers flashed against the blur of white, and I crushed Edward's throat without a care.

Bella whimpered, refusing to meet his eye, staring at me instead. "Do it, Jasper. I want this, you know I want this. I want you. Do it, please."

I flooded the room with every sleepy feeling I could muster, feeling Bella relax in my arms. Edward fell to the floor with a thump, fingers twitching as he tried to fight me.

Bella melted in my arms, her eyes wide with panic. "Don't fight it, Darlin'," I drawled, quirking a brow at the trickle of lust that slipped past my shields. Bella shifted beneath me, lip caught between her teeth in a vice grip. "Happy Birthday, Sugar."

Her blood was sweet like Texas honey, coating my throat. She arched and moaned, a twisted mix of pain and pleasure, and I couldn't help but return the feeling. She was a simpering mess of heaven beneath me; guilt and goodness washing down my throat and grinding against my aching dick. My hands strayed down her body, working with their own minds along the curve of her breast, the swell of her ass. I doubted she could feel it through the burn anyway, but I did wonder if she could feel my cock pressed urgently against her soft stomach. It seemed like a hard thing to ignore.

Her blood tapered off, and I released her, lapping at the wound until it healed. Even her skin was sweet, her pulse thudding desperate and weak beneath my tongue. I held her tightly, waiting for something, anything, her small body cradled against mine. She was going to be a force to reckon with, this Bella, who was now, and forever, a little bit mine. I prayed only that she would not regret this. Not regret _me_.

"Love," she whimpered, even through the pain and I was so relieved it fucking hurt. She was amazing, _ferocious_, and amazing.

A growl ripped through the silence. "I didn't want her for eternity! I wanted her to be _real!_" Edward growled, struggling through the false lethargy. I held it, invigorated by the human-blood pumping through my veins.

"You may not have wanted her forever," I replied, lifting her shivering, moaning form into my arms. "But I did."

**xXxXxXx**

I made it to the truck before she stopped me, and truly, I knew she would. "Jasper," she said quietly, leaning against the garage door.

"Alice. I...I'm..."

"I know you're sorry, Jasper. I know. And I'm sorry too. I always...I've always known you weren't my mate." She held her hand outstretched, keys dangling from her fingers. "He's waiting for you."

"You called him?" I asked, swallowing hard. "Why?"

"That's where you're going isn't it?" she asked in return, dropping the keys in my bag. "You're going back to Peter?"

"I have to," I replied. "I need him. I can't...I need his help with Bella."

She smiled sadly, closing her eyes as she spoke. "I've always known you'd end up back in Texas, but it still hurts. I loved you so much."

"I did love you," I swore. "I've always loved you. It's just..."

"It can't compare," she finished for me. "You're asking a lot from him, bringing her there. He isn't happy."

"He hates me," I said dully. "And he should. I abandoned him."

Alice laughed, a broken sound. "He doesn't hate you, Jasper. He never could, and I think...I think that hurts him too. I've packed both you and Bella a bag in the truck. I didn't see this happening until the paper cut, but I had enough time to get some things in order. It's...it's all there. The things you cherished; your guitar, the boots. The fucking Stetson. I know you're not coming back."

"You always hated that hat," I said, setting Bella into the cab, sprawled out across the back seat.

"Because he gave it to you," Alice agreed bitterly, biting her lip, eyes wet. "I could never compete with what you and Peter had."

"He's my brother," I began, but she cut me off, a finger pressed to my mouth.

"You love him, Jasper," she whispered, resting her head against my shoulder. I held her close, her tiny body trembling against me. "There isn't a soul that could stop it, not me and not Bella, no matter how much you love her."

"Of course I love him," I swallowed, hating her tone of voice. I didn't want it to end like this...but it was ending, and I guess it didn't matter how.

She pulled away, freeing herself from my arms. "Take care of her, Jasper. I still love her; let her know that, if she asks. I don't blame her, and I don't blame you. I blame...I blame myself for ever taking you out of Texas."

TBC


	2. Chapter 2

**Five Seconds To Death Chapter 2/?**

**Author :** Lifeless Lyndsey

**Summary :** No Summary Yet

**Pairing**: JasperxBella at the moment, anyways.

**Warning:** M for language, lemons, violence, gore, questionable content, swearing, and other stuff, maybe. I don't know.

**Word Count:** 4,300

**Beta:** VampishVixen - I'mma put a ring on it. Maker her an honest woman.

**Disclaimer: **I own nearly nothing. Not the Jasper. Not the Bella. Not the sparkling. I'd like to think that a little bit of Peter is mine though, since I pretty much made him what he is in this fic, a little southern bastard.

**A/N** Okay, okay. I know that I said I wasn't going to be posting another chapter till next week, but all y'alls reviews were phenomenal, and clearly I have a problem. This chapter is a bit different from the last one, which I guess was more of a prologue? But we get to see Peterpants, and I know y'all want to get to that. Also, this is the first time I've written a really southern Peter. So, bear with me. I'm learning. You all take the letter "G" for granted. Well, stop using it at the end of words and see how you feel. The letter G deserves love. This A/N has clearly been brought to you by some sort of latent Sesame street thing going on in my head or something. Fuck me, I'm ranting. Bye.

**Jasper**

**!#$%^&**

The trip was excruciating. Peter's most recent place was a day and a half straight drive from Forks, cutting through six states along the way. Over two-thousand miles lay between where I'd been and where I was going. By the time I'd traveled half of them, I'd nearly reached the end of my fraying tether.

Bella fought it, with every gasping breath in her body. I could feel the fight fade in her, and it broke me. Every whimper, every cry, I felt it chill my bones. The constant stream of serenity I was pumping out must have helped her; she hadn't screamed as much as I'd expected. But the effort it exacted was draining me dry. But four gas stops, and one confused cop later, we'd reached Panola County, Texas.

The town was tiny, a little podunk backwater thing left of fucking nowhere, in South Texas. With an alarming population of just below five-thousand, I could only assume that Peter outsourced his meals to one of the neighboring cities. I punched the address from the pink Post-it note Alice had left on my steering-wheel into the GPS. It hurt that I had hurt her, but in truth it had been a long time coming. Though we never quite fell out of love, things hadn't been the same in quite a while. We'd stayed because it was comfortable; neither of us ever really finding a reason to leave. Finding Bella hadn't just been my reason to leave; it set Alice free too.

Peter had an eight-mile-long private drive, cutting through woods so thick you couldn't see through them; neat rows of trees planted decades ago. More trees than people: that was Deadwood. The driveway split into two, making a circle around a rather horrendous looking moss-covered mermaid water fountain. I pulled my truck up next to what I assumed was Peter's sleek, silver Tahoe, laden down with two-by-fours and dry wall. The house was massive and old, probably older than the little forest that surrounded it. It was the kind of house Esme would have loved, I thought; a run down three-story Victorian, covered with creeping moss and vines. It was beautiful in its own way, all that hidden potential. I could see why Peter had bought it.

"We'll if it ain't the Major himself. S'long way from the city, pretty-boy," Peter drawled, stepping out onto the half-refinished porch. I hadn't sensed him coming, hadn't heard him, or smelled him; such was his gift, the fucking bastard. "I'mma thinkin' you must be lost."

"Peter-"

He smiled, hard and cold, shaking his head at me. "I ain't seen hide nor hair of you in sixty years, Jasper. You wanna just show up on my door step, you can shove your fuckin' excuses, ya hear me? Whatter you doin' here anyway?" His eyes narrowed at the cab of my trunk, his hard smile fading into a scowl. "Aw hell Jasper. Is that what it took to get your ass to see me? Getter' inside, s'few rooms upstairs that are finished."

"Peter-"

"Naw, see. It don't work like that. You wanna come groveling when you ain't got no where else to go, s'fine. I'm a nice guy, ain't gonna let you fuck thissun's new life up. So I'll help you, but you sure as fuck better shut your purty mouth unless I ask you a goddamn question, ya hear?"

"Right," I said shortly, pulling open the cab doors.

He nodded, cold smile returning. "Good. Third floor up, second door on your right."

**!#$%^&**

I'd only just laid Bella out across the double bed when Peter made his second appearance, still dressed in only boots, jeans, and a tool belt. "She's a day'n half in, yeah?" he asked, wiping his filthy hands on a red handkerchief before shoving it in his back pocket. "You ain't looking so good. You needa' hunt?"

"Keeping her calm has drained me," I admitted, tearing my eyes away from the door. "I don't think I should leave her."

Peter dropped Bella's small duffle at the end of the bed, and tipped the brim of his damned cow-boy hat back. "S'lotta stuff in your truck. Saw your guitar. You staying?"

"Just until she's changed," I replied, unwilling to push my tentative welcome. "I thought I'd take her south of border, buy something out in the sand-lands."

Peter shrugged, shifting the tool belt on his waist. "I was fixin' to tear up the kitchen floor, but I reckon you wanna take an hour or two to grab yourself dinner out in the back yard, that'd be fine. S'no problem watching your girl die and all."

"Peter..."

Peter shrugged again, red eyes bright and fresh. "Ain't no sense in sugar coating that shit, Jazz." The nickname rolled of his tongue with acid and nostalgia. "Turning and burning, pretty boy; that shit takes me way back. Makes me just want to reminisce! Just lookin' at her makes me think of good ole' Char, takin' a tumble head first into the pit," he finished with a mean smile.

I cringed, fingers clenching in the bedspread. "You know that I...regret that."

"Oh sure," he nodded dramatically. "Now you regret it, s'all right as rain. Ain't gonna lie, s'pretty shitty thing to do. But Char? She mighta been real pretty, a real fiery little thing, and I ain't gonna say I didn't mourn her in my own way, but the girl wasn't my mate."

"You loved her," I replied, shaking my head as irrational wrath welled up inside me. Why'd he have to go and bring this shit up? "I know you did."

"I reckon' I did, but that ain't here nor there. Get yer shit together and go huntin' Jasper. You ain't worth shit to your baby all strung out and jonesin'."

"I don't..."I swallowed hard, choking on the words as they rose in my throat."I'm not sure I trust you with her." And I might have, but he had to bring up Charlotte; now I couldn't be sure. Eye for an eye, so the saying goes.

The cocky smile vanished, lips curling back into a snarl. "Shit son! You got some balls on you! I ain't done shit to you, ain't done a thing, and boy, you deserve a lickin'. You think I'mma take it out on your girl here? I'm real fuckin' insulted Jasper; I thought you knew me better. Use to be a time I reckon you knew me better than anyone."

I felt myself flinch, his deep laden pain pouring over me along side Bella's. I'd hurt him, just like I knew I would, but I couldn't help but worry. "I know you wouldn't hurt her, Peter."

"So why don y'all go and gitcha self fixed up before your girl here wakes up," he rolled his eyes, smirking dirty. "Well, go on now, she ain't going nowhere, and neither am I. If'n I ain't in the kitchen, around when y'all get back, I'll be tearing up the second floor washroom."

"Really, I think I can manage another day and a half without hunting. I'll need to take her when she wakes anyway," I said, knowing how unreasonable I sounded. Peter was right, I did need to hunt, but I didn't want to give him the satisfaction. I might have been a bastard, but he sure as shit wasn't acting any better.

He licked his pale lips, giving me a one-two look up and down before his face twisted into a grimace. "Y'all sure you're Jasper Whitlock? Cause the way I 'member, the Major wasn't no dumb-shit, and yer sure lookin' pretty stupid right about now. Fuck, Whitlock! What are you expectin' from thissun? You thinkin' it's gonna be fuckin' cake? She's just gonna wake up and be your baby-girl, just like that? You gone and forgot what them babies can do? What are you gonna do, two hours in when she's looking to run and your half-starved and drained to boot? I like it here in Deadwood, Whitlock, don't want you fuckin' my shit up. So get your ass in them backwoods and get yourself a fuckin' deer before I really get angry."

"Fine," I spat, pushing my way past him. My shoulder slammed into his, strong and solid, but he let me pass him without much problem. Fucker was strong, stronger than I was, amped up on goddamn moose and shit.

**Peter POV**

**!#$%^&**

He left in a right fit, hauling his city-boy ass out the back door with a growl. Boy was askin' for a throw down, and I was fix'n to give it. Didn't have a doubt in my mind punches'd be thrown before the week was over. Boy'd gone and lost his mind showin' up on my door step, pretty little baby in hand.

Didn't take long, maybe five or ten minutes, when the screaming began, like a harmony of pain. I let it fade into the background; it was easy enough to do, the sound of screaming newborns was hardly new.

He didn't know it, but I sure as fuck did, had a nose for those things I guess, but that baby, she was gonna be trouble. A good lookin' thing, I'd admit that much and I had to wonder if maybe the Major had a taste for fiery little brunettes.

Real pretty, I thought, all dressed up like she had some place to go. She had on a pretty little dress, and her hair was done in curls. Funny thing that, none of it looked quite right on her. I'da hazard a guess she wasn't one to get all gussied up, judging by the fading scars on her leg, that n' the fact she was wearing chuck's with a cocktail dress. Her face, even twisted up in pain, was soft and round, with a mouth on it made for sin and kissin'. Yeah, Jasper sure did know how to pick em', I'd give the bastard that.

Lil' thing whimpered, pale hands clenched at her side. Don't know what made me do it, maybe I'm just a compassionate man, but I laid my hand upon her cheek, cupping her clenched jaw in my palm. Her skin was clammy, fire and ice, and I could feel the pulse stop, stop, stop and stutter, struggling one hell of a fight.

"Aw hell, baby doll. You think it hurts now? You just wait 'til your boy Jasper's gone and done with you," I said quietly to the whimpering girl. "That's when the real pain begins."

I crept back out of the room, listenin' to her put up the good fight. Near 'bout a day an' a half left, she was dead in the middle, no pun intended. I made my way back downstairs, but those kitchen floor boards just couldn't hold my mind like I'd hoped. Each one came up in a cloud of dust and my new home felt more like a prison than it ever had. A little rest and renovation, I'd thought when I'd bought it, big ole' thing out in the sticks. Ain't never thought I'd see his face again, wasn't even sure I'd wanted to.

Now, that was a lie, 'cause there wasn't a day gone by I didn't miss the dirty bastard. I'd a whole mess of memories that weren't fucked up, cause' when times were good, they were real good. But when times were bad, I ended up shoved to the back burner, tossed aside for a new ride. I'm a-guessin' hoes before bro's just didn't apply back in those days, but I'dda thought if he and I were nothing more, we were friends. I got shoved aside like a bad memory.

Ain't not a word in sixty years, and I find his ass on my front porch. And he knew, oh that bastard knew I'd never tell him no. No matter how much I wanted to smack the smug off his face, he knew I'd let him stay.

Jasper showed up not an hour later, streaked in bitter-scented blood, his mouth stained a cherry red. His eyes were lighter, losing their bright red edge. "Now don't you be trackin' blood through my house, ya hear?" I called from the doorway, startling Jasper, much to my delight.

"Bastard," he muttered, wiping at his mouth with the back of his equally bloody hand. "Wear a goddamn bell."

I chuckled, shaking my head as he grumbled. "Now that ain't no way to talk to your Host. Boy, you's a hot mess. Workin' shower's on the second floor, towels in the closet. Strip down; I'll toss those in the wash."

"I just want to get back to Bella," he said, fingers hesitant on the buttons of his jeans. Bella's screams dulled slightly so as he washed her with serenity. "Can't I just take off my boots?"

I laughed, although it came out bitter and sharp. "Goddamn, city-boy, when'd you get so modest? S'not like I'mma be overcome by the glory that is you, and find myself unable to keep from molesting you. For fuck's sake, quit being a goddamn bitch and take your britches off. You wanna track blood across my floors, I'mma make you lick it off. Now, I figure that shit ain't gonna taste much different from the tiles, but it sure will be fun to watch."

I caught the jeans as they flew at my face, his irritation leaking into the air. He tossed his shirt over his head, struttin' down my halls in nothin' but his skin. So the Major still went commando.

"Good to see some shit don't change!" I called out, chuckling as he flipped me off.

I snatched his shirt up off the floor, tossing it directly into the trash, wasn't no use trying to salvage that mess. The jeans I tossed in the sink, cranking the cold water, grabbing my kit from the cupboard.

The blood wasn't bad, just an arterial spray across the thighs, a long, dark line of blood. The blood smelled like goddamn dirt, but I could smell the girl under it, all flowers and fuckin' sunshine. Goddamn, I wanted to be mad, be angry with him, and really I was; I just didn't have it in me to beat the shit outta him, or better yet, turn his ass out. Ain't no reason I hadta say yes, ain't no reason I'd let him stay other than when it came to the Major, there wasn't no saying no.

And goddamn it hurt, having him all up in here, looking every bit the man I remembered, even in his designer jeans. I kinda hated him for it, for doing this to me. I was madder'n hell and I couldn't do a lick about it. Five seconds after seeing him on my porch, and I already felt like dying.

I was still scrubbing when Jasper'd finished in the washroom. He leaned against the doorway quietly, watching as I rubbed the salt into the blood splattering the left leg. "Same recipe?" he asked, stepping up to the counter. His fingers flicked idly at the orange cardboard flap on the baking soda.

"Oldie but goodie," I replied. "Ain't no one who can get the blood out like a Southern Boy. Pass me that vinegar, would you?"

He pushed the clear glass bottle across the counter. "You know you don't gotta do this. I got other jeans."

I shrugged. Truth was, I liked the rhythm, and the familiarity of the pink-tinged bubbles as the blood was washed away. "And I got more money then the sea's got fish; you don't see me slappin' on a new pair of jeans just 'cause the old un's are a little bloody."

That sounded a hell of a lot like a euphemism for my goddamn life.

"I...I can leave," he said slowly. "Comin' here was a mistake."

"Where you go gonna go?" I asked, not looking up from the sink. I mighta been a goddamn ninja, but Jasper's gift was just as much a bitch. "Don't piss on my leg, Jasper, and tell me it's rainin'. We both know you only ever came here 'cause you were outta options."

He looked indignant, an expression that suited him perfectly, fuckin' bitch. "I thought I'd call some of the old crowd. See what's going on a little farther South."

I looked up slowly, hand stilling on his jeans. "Who you think you're gonna call, exactly?"

He shrugged, hip pressed against the counter. "Don't know, just some of the old crew. Logan, maybe. Or Cassidy. He had that ranch down in Nuevo Loredo, and he owes me some favors."

"Logan and Cassidy are dead," I said, turning to him. "Damn near all of 'em are, didn't you hear?"

"What?" His eyes were wide, all the deep-pressed human imitations fading from his posture. "Alice didn't see this."

"Maybe she did, she just didn't wanna tell you," I replied, turning back to the sink.

Jasper frowned. "Why wouldn't she tell me?" he asked, head falling to the side.

"Don't know," I replied, grabbing the scrub-brush from the back of the sink. "What do you think you would'a done if'n she had?"

"I would have come!" he growled, as if he'd suggested otherwise. "If I had known...I would have been here in a heart beat."

"Then I reckon you got your answer," was all I said, and I'd only just finished talking when his cell-phone buzzed.

"Alice."

"_I'm sorry, I would've have told you, but the outcome never changed, whether you were there or not._"

He growled, and I slapped his hand where it was wrapped around my new marble counters. Fucker broke 'em and I'd bust his fuckin' leg.

"You think that would have mattered to me?" he snapped. "I should have been here, Alice. These...they were my family too. I'd come back if the Cullens ever needed my help."

_"I...I didn't want to lose you yet." _

He closed his eyes, head tilting back as if he were lookin' at the sky. "Selfish. That has got to be the most selfish thing I have ever heard."

_"Me?"_ Alice chimed, her voice alight with cruel amusement. _"Oh, Jasper. You're more selfish than I could ever dream of. I think Peter would agree, wouldn't you Peter?"_

Jasper's utter fuckin' agony crashed over me, and my fingers slipped in the water. I watched his throat work as he swallowed hard. Prying the phone from his hand with my own soapy fingers, I pressed it against my ear. I'd been dying to say somethin' to the little bitch for a long time.

"'Cause a-you, whole bunch'a my boys are dead. Now I ain't denying Jasper's a little shit, but in my eyes, you're just as guilty for Logan and Cassidy's death as that _perra chupando la sangre_. I reckon I ever see you in these parts, I just might let what's left of my boys know it. You got yourself a mighty fine gift, Alice Cullen, but don't you be thinkin' you know it all. Just 'cause you saw it that way, doesn't mean we couldn'ta used my boy, here."

_"Your boy?"_ Alice said with a tinkering laugh. "_Oh Peter. He's not your boy. You think he's just going to come back, and you've got your best friend back? No, no, no. That isn't your boy, Peter. That's Bella's boy now." _

I snapped the phone shut and dropped it in the sink. "Now, as I was saying before that goddamn little interruption. Ain't no where for you to go. 'Sides, that girl of yours is gonna be a short burner. Her heart's doubled since you got here. I reckon we gonna see that baby by the day's end."

"Jesus," Jasper said tiredly. "Fuck."

I snorted, wringing the jeans out over the empty side of the sink. "Aw come on now, don't be bashful. You gotta know you make some awesome babies."

"Well," he said at length, leaning over to fish his ruined cell phone out of the sink. "I made you, and you're a fuckin' peach." He waved the phone pointedly. "I'm gonna go see if I can help her a little. If what you say is true, and I ain't doubting it, she's about to hit into the hard stuff."

"Don't over do it, shit head." I said, ringing the last of the water from the jeans. "And put some fuckin' clothes on. Doubt you'll want your dick out when she wakes, just in case she gets it in'ter her head to attack, you know?"

**Jasper**

**!#$%^&**

Peter was right, of course. Not that I had thought he wouldn't be, because the bastard just had an eye for this shit. It wasn't even a gift, something he was born with. It was a fucking talent, honed by watching thousands of newborns turned and burned. Yeah, he had an eye for it alright.

Bella whimpered, fingers clenching and un-clenching in the bed. I stretched out beside her, pressing my cool hands against her heated face. It had only taken five seconds to kill her, five seconds to make that choice. I pressed a kiss against her mouth, the same damn mouth that got me into this mess.

"S'all right, Bella," I drawled, letting the long suppressed Texas accent seep into my voice. No point in hiding it here, no one to tell me I'd be better off without it. "Gonna be alright," I promised, flooding her with waves of calm.

**!#$%**

The build up was as anticlimactic as ever, nothing more then a stutter-stutter-stop of her heart. Lucidity slammed into her like a brick fucking wall, the shift from burning-pain to clarity happening in the blink of blood-red eyes.

She was fuckin' brilliant, all wonderment and curiosity as she sprang from prone-to-crouch in a flash of white. But the disorientation, it reminded me why I wasn't good with the fresh-born babies, why I'd always picked 'em up once that post-death shock was gone and done.

My head was spinnin' as she snapped from startled to panicked, her red eyes skating across my throat and jaw. She sprang, fingers crushing my throat as she threw me back, slamming me against the freshly painted pale blue wall.

"Goddamn it, I just finished this room," Peter snapped, springing into action. "Do your fucking job Major, you gonna let this little girl manhandle you?"

He peeled her off me, his arms locking hers around her waist. She snapped and snarled, razor nails tearing chunks of flesh from his forearms. Her emotions were hay-wire, fear, flee and fight; I was sick with it, sagging against the wall. I watched, dizzy with the explosion of fury as she spun in Peter's arms, lunging forward at him, teeth bared.

She sank her teeth into his shoulder, fingers curling into his biceps, stripping lines of skin from his flesh. "Dammit Jasper!" Peter snarled, wrapping his arm around her elbows. "Do something!"

I couldn't, Jesus, I couldn't. It was Bella, always had been; everything she felt, she felt deeply. I was drowning in it, sinking into blackness; it was too much to process, too much at once. Through lidded eyes I watched the twist of her arm as he yanked it from the socket, tearing the pretty pale flesh at the shoulder. She stumbled back, screeching in agony and he took the distraction to trip her, one smooth swipe of his foot, taking her out at the ankles.

She fell and he pinned her with all the grace I'd taught him, muscles bulging in his arms as he crushed her windpipe, one knee pressed between her legs, the other pinning her at the stomach. She scratched frantically at his face with her remaining hand, ripping through his left eye before he could stop her.

I couldn't even protest as he struck her hard across her face, the sound of contact booming like thunder in the old house. Her hand stopped, palm pressed against his cheek almost intimately as he grabbed her chin between his fingers, rattling her face.

"Stop," he demanded, venom running down his chin. "We don't wanna hurt you, baby, but we will. Now, you gotta stop, ya hear?" He waited, letting her nod her head sharply. He pushed her face, forcing her to look at me. "You see him? Who is he? Think. Come on, you gotta think. You remember him, pretty baby? You remember him? That boy loves you."

Bella swallowed; her mouth, that mouth I loved, still pulled into a snarl. "Jas...Jasper," she growled, hand falling from Peter's face to the floor. "Jasper. Jasper. I..." Her eyes clenched shut.

"Baby," I said. "Jesus, Bella. It's okay. I'm here, I'm here. Just...don't attack him. He's..."I paused, watching Peter's eyes flicker to me, the back to Bella. "He's my brother."

Bella relaxed, but Peter didn't. His face drew up into an even more ferocious scowl. "Ain't no one gonna hurt you, hear?" Peter said, no more gently.

She nodded again, keeping her eyes closed, and Peter released her throat. "I'm going to give you your arm back," he said carefully, annunciating each word with careful perfect edict. "Next time you snap at me, I'mma take your leg."

Licking at the silver-black venom staining his lips, he pulled back, dropping Bella's arm on her stomach. "Get up," he said to me. He didn't wait, didn't give me any time to rise to a stand before his hand curled into my shirt yanking me up. "You let shit get outta hand like that again Major, I'mma kick your ass seven ways to Sunday. You use to be brilliant; now you can't getta handle on one little baby. I'm ashamed I called you my Major. If the boys could see you now..." He shook his head in disgust, shoving me backwards. "Get her arm back on and get her cleaned up."

* * *

**A/N **Yeah, Jasper can't really handle his girl. I'd consider it a combination of being out of practice, Bella being an empath's bloody fucking nightmare, and his inability to hurt her. And Peter? He ain't too fucking happy to be picking up the slack. He just finished that wall...

_**perra chupando la sangre** - _blood sucking bitch


	3. Chapter 3

**Five Seconds To Death Chapter 3/?**

**Author **: Lifeless Lyndsey

**Summary :**

**Pairing:** This was tough to pick. Mainly, it's JasperxBella through the whole fic, with a side of JasperxPeter, PeterxBella, JasperxPeterxBella (take your pick. it rotates)

**Warning:** M for language, lemons, slash, possible threesomes, possible gore.

**Word Count**: Just north of 5k

**Beta**: VampishVixen - the only beta for me. Really, I should put a ring on it'.

**Disclaimer**: I own nearly nothing , not the characters, not the Bella, not Jasper, but maybe a little bit of the Peter

**Jasper**

**!#$%^&**

Peter waited until Bella was safely tucked away in the shower, sluicing away three days worth of confusion and stress. I had anticipated his anger, I knew him well enough. I deserved the anger of course. I'd really fucked up back there. And at any rate, Peter should have hated me.

Without a word, he led me out back, to the edge of his yard. Dry, water-starved grass crunched loudly beneath our feet, nothing but moonlight and star shine illuminating our path. We leaned against the broken fence, the only thing separating his back yard from the dense forest that spread across half his property. We stood in silence, but the silence said enough. Had I wanted to speak, I wouldn't have known what to say.

"Jasper," his voice was quiet, the kind of storm before the calm you never seem to be wary of until it was far too late. "So, _brother_."

The word stung, tied up in anger and pain. Resentment. "I have...I...I don't know what to say, Peter. I don't know what you want me to say."

"I don't want you to say anythin'. I don't wanna' fuckin' hear it," he replied quietly. "What the hell happened back there? Get in over your head with the girl, Jasper? You always had to pick the hard ones, huh? You always were a fickle fucker. How'd you and Bella meet? Did'ja just find something better, and leave Alice too? Maybe she and I can join a fuckin' club. I...I thought I was cool with this. But...goddammit you can't do this to me! I'm not cleanin' up your mess cause' you can't handle it! I'm not doing this! You can't...you just gonna drop this baby too?"

"It wasn't like that, and you know it," I hissed, casting a cautious glance towards the house. "It wasn't like that," I repeated more quietly.

"Then what was it like? Because fuck if I know Jasper!" Peter exclaimed, fighting just as hard to keep quiet. His anger was written in every inch of his body; shoulders tense, fists balled at his side. I could feel it, bleeding into my own, but we both knew that fighting with a half-an-hour old new born around wouldn't end pretty. I had to keep my wits about me, if I planned on getting her through this in one piece.

"Goddammit Peter, you knew I wasn't...I'm not..."

Peter growled, and I was half sure he was going to hit me. It had been a while since I had any tactile practice and I wouldn't doubt his strength was superior, built on human blood as it was. "If you say you ain't gay, I'mma punch you in the face."

"M'not." God, did I sound like a petulant little bitch. "I'm not. I ...I like women, dammit. Peter...how may _gay _vampires do you know?"

"Two," he replied in a growl. His hand flew out faster then I could comprehend, and I was sure he was making good on his promise to punch me in the face. He didn't though; his hand slipped into my hair instead, ripping me forward, causing me to stumble and slam inelegantly against him. "If you ever call me your brother again, I'll _kill_ you."

"No you won't," I dared, itching to push away, or pull myself closer; I couldn't be sure when it came to the bastard. "Couldn't kill me, even if you want to."

His eyes hardened, and I felt the pain rip though me like a hot knife. "To bad you can't say the same to me, huh? Why did you bring her here, Jasper? Why are you doing this to me?" He shoved me away, running his hands over his face. "How can you do his to me again?"

"I love her." He didn't want to hear it, and I didn't want to say it, to him at least.

"Yeah," he sighed, "you love her. But she ain't your mate, Jasper. And she never will be. Just like Alice wasn't."

"Peter..."

Growling louder this time, he slammed his hand into my chest, fingers balling into my shirt. "Shut the fuck up, Jasper Whitlock. I don't want to hear your goddamn fuckin' excuses. Sixty years, Jasper. Sixty fuckin' years, I been alone while you been playin' Martha fuckin' Stewart, and cheatin' on your wife."

"You don't have to be!" I argued, fighting the crashing waves of agony rolling over my own. "You don't have to be alone!" I cringed as his anger escalated, causing growls to slip from my own mouth, venom dripping from the corner of my lips. He looked feral, and my stomach burned and twisted. He looked like we use to.

"Unlike you Major, I won't lie to myself." Pushing me away again, Peter laughed at me. Laughed in my face, and turned away, walking towards the house. "You ever get around to tellin' that pretty family your last name isn't Whitlock? That you'd gone and taken my name, Baby?"

"Goddamit Peter!"

He laughed again, broken and hallow. "You're _my_ mate, Jasper Whitlock, ain't nothing gonna change that."

**xXxXx**

Nothing more was said on the subject, and we slipped silently into the house. I found Bella curled up in a naked heap on the shower floor, hot water pouring down her pale, perfect body. She looked up at me with wide red eyes, dark lashes casting shadows across her cheeks in the dim light.

"I won't hurt you," I said gently, watching the way her eyes darted across my scars. "You remember me, don't you?"

"Jasper," she replied, short and clipped. "Whitlock."

I heard Peter snort, somewhere in the house. Bastard. "Yes, thats right. Do you remember who you are?" I crouched down to meet her at eye level, droplets of water seeping into my jeans. "Do you know who you are, darlin?"

She nodded once, snatching my hand in hers in a bone crushing grip. "Bella Swan. I'm...I'm your..." Her brow scrunched as she frowned, looking to me for aid. "I don't know."

"It's complicated, I'm afraid. But I love you very much, and I believe that you love me as well," I replied quietly, pressing her damp palm against my face. "I would not have changed you had I not believed you wanted it."

"I did!" she said adamantly. "I remember that. Wanting this...you? I think...we're not...there are other faces. We're not...close, are we?"

"Let's get you dressed, and I'll explain more, okay? You just keep focusing on it, it'll come to you," I said gently, tugging her up. "We'll have to get you some proper clothing later, but for now this will have to do." I handed her a plain tank top and some sort of stretchy-legging things. Alice, it seemed, had at least kept it simple.

She immediately snapped the strap off one tank, and growled as I handed her another. I could feel her irritation rising, as her fingers clenched around the waist of the pants, hauling them up. Catching her wrists gently, I stilled her efforts, guiding her hands up slowly ignoring the fact that'd this would always be the first time I'd seen her in any state of undress. No use in getting worked up when she's as likely to kiss me as snap my dick off on accident. "It takes some getting use to, but I promise you it will not always be so hard."

"Everything is..." she shook her head, damp curls clinging to her skin. "There is so much. Like I'm being pulled apart."

"Your senses are on overload," I informed her, tying the drawstring tighter around her waist. "It will ease as you feed."

"The...family. They hunted animals?" she asked, stumbling her way awkwardly through the question as memories came back to her in trickles. "Car...Carlsile? He showed you? Or was it..." Her eyes narrowed, and she pulled herself free from me with a snarl. "Your wife. Your wife showed you. I'm...I'm not your...you said you loved me...but you're married..."

She growled deeply, choking back a wave of venom as it rose to her throat. I stepped back slowly, hands raised in defeat. "It's complicated, but I promise you that I do love you, Bella."

"Edward," She said abruptly. "Who is Edward?"

"Your..."I cringed inwardly, knowing it more dangerous to lie. "He was your boyfriend. My brother."

"Close your eyes and hold your breath. The sensory-deprivation will cause a brief sensation of panic, but it will calm you if you focus," Peter said from the door way. "You've done enough here Jasper, you can just get the fuck out."

"I don't think that's a-" I began, but anything else I had to say was cut off by a wet, vicious growl as Bella snapped at Peter.

Peter smiled. "I won't hurt you, Baby. We just need to have a little talk. It'll help, I swear it." Peter elbowed me roughly in the stomach, shoving me out the door with one hand. "Now, I want you to close your eyes, and hold your breath. Okay, that's it. I know, I know...it's scary at first. I want you to breath out, but not in, m'kay? Once more. Keep your eyes closed, honey."

I watched as Peter tugged Bella to the floor, kneeling before her. She did as she was told, her mouth still curled up into a snarl. Peter took her hand in his, guiding her thumb and forefinger together. "Focus on the point where your fingers touch. That's one," he instructed in a whisper. He lifted her forefinger gently, pressing her middle finger against her thumb this time. "Again, that's two. Just focus, breath out, eyes closed." The step was continued with each finger, and each hand, till Bella was breathing again, resting against the bathroom door. Peter pressed her thumb and pinky together, "That's ten. Now open your eyes, but look at me; don't look at him, look at me."

Her eyes snapped open obediently, trained on Peter as he spoke. "You're mad at Jasper. Your anger is important, but you can't be focusin' on it. You want answers, you ask questions. Now, what is it that you want to know? Eyes on me; don't look at Jasper yet, you're still too angry."

Bella's eyes flickered slightly. "How did...how? When?" She shook her head and closed her eyes again.

"Last year," I replied quietly. "You were attacked by a nomad, do you remember? Alice and I took you away, to keep you safe. You and I...we were left alone. We kissed. That's...that's when it started." I sighed. "Please understand that we fought it, Bella. We tried to do right by Edward and Alice. We never cheated on them. But ...you were bleeding, and you were begging me, pleading for me to do it. I could feel it. I could feel how much you loved me, and how much you wanted this. How much you wanted to be with me. You were so relieved...like this was what you were waiting for, our chance to be together. I love you; I'd never do anything to hurt you."

Bella nodded once, her head hanging between her shoulders. She didn't speak, and when I made to, Peter silenced me. "You've said enough, Jasper. You know as well as I that she's too young for this kind of emotional upheaval," he said darkly. "You're askin' too much of her. I don't care how much you love her, or how this is your chance to be together. She ain't ready for that, and quite fuckin' frankly, you're a dick to even expect she'd be ready to just jump into bed with you and play your new Suzy fucking homemaker after _dying_," he growled, tugging Bella to a stand. "You can't just throw shit like that at her. You're gonna tear her apart."

"I'm okay," Bella replied quietly, her eyes shut tight. "It's my fault, I got upset, but I'm okay now. I remember a little. He's right...I did want this...I was...I didn't know how to leave Edward...we didn't want to hurt the family, I think?"

"It doesn't matter if he's right, Baby'" Peter said, his entire tone shifting to soothe her. "Your emotions are not your fault. Jasper knows you're gonna git' a little temperamental. Your body will react to your emotions faster then your mind can. It ain't your fault, _you_ can't control it. I want you to open your eyes, and look at Jasper."

I eyed Peter warily, keeping my ground. Bella's pale lids flittered open, red eyes shining. An inadvertent curl slipped past her lips as her gaze fell upon me, but she squashed it, turning to press her face into Peter's shoulder. He looked at me with all the smugness I had long since forgotten.

"See?" he asked, watching me with a smirk as he hooked his arm around her waist. "You're not really mad at him, but your instinct is to still be upset. Open your eyes again, but this time, don't look away. Just give it a moment, and let your anger go."

Again, she did as she was told, looking up at me through dark lashes. I watched her shoulders sag with relief as she managed to harness some measure of control. I glared at Peter, torn between relief and a strange possessive rage welling up inside me.

"Thank you," Bella replied quietly. "I ...I don't know who you are? How do you know Jasper? You're not really brothers, right?"

Peter chuckled, low and throaty, ignoring my pleading gaze entirely. "Oh, Jasper and I go way back, baby. Ain't another soul who knows Jasper like I do. Know him inside and out, I do. Every square inch of h-"

"That's enough Peter," I snapped. "Peter and I fought together in Maria's army. I changed him, and we bonded." I explained, frowning. "You two may be bonded as well, through me."

**!#$%^&**

He didn't need to be told why I was standing in his laundry room watching him fold his whites at the slowest fuckin' pace possible. That was Peter for you; all that power, that speed, but he just loved to take his time. 'Why rush? S'not like were runnin' out of time' he use to say, sprawled out across the grassy fields. We were so damn young then. Seemed like a different world.

He hadn't changed, and...and I had.

"Go on now, get to askin'," he said, tossing a sock into the basket.

I leaned against the stainless steel dryer, warmth soaking into my hip. "Why bother if you know what I want to ask."

He smirked, that dirty smirk that had been haunting me for years. "Maybe I jus' wanna hear it."

"I'm not surprised," I replied, fiddling with the box of Downy scented dryer sheets. I hated the smell, but Peter...well. Enough has been said about Peter. "You always did like to knock people down."

"I didn't knock you anywhere," Peter replied, his casual tone gone. "Not that you don't deserve it."

"I can't take her hunting on my own." No sense in beating around the bush, especially if it meant he was going to remind me of what a fuckin' dick I was. I didn't need him to remind me, his emotions said enough.

"What'd I say?" he said, dropping a neatly folded undershirt onto the pile. "I ain't in no place to be cleanin' up your mess. You gone and made it, you can lay in your bed all by yourself."

Unbidden images of Peter in my bed seeped through the careful walls in my mind. "I can't do this on my own."

"Didn't think you could," he replied, elbowing me out of the way to pull his darks from the dryer. "Ain't my problem you're a dick. Don't you got a family somewhere? Pretty sure Alice was a package deal."

"Why you gotta break my balls?"I growled. "You know I can't go back there, you know I ain't gonna. Quit being a lil' shit, Peter and help me out. I'm askin'."

Peter chuckled. "Look'it that. You still gotta little Texas in them city-boy jeans. Boy, we both know you's only askin' cause' you ain't got many options. That and clearly, I'm fuckin' awesome. Don't be thinkin' you're the first to stop by with a baby in hand, Jazzy. Y'alls family might think your some sort of War prodigy, and maybe you are, but we both know I'mma helluva lot better with the youngin's. What can I say? Kids love me."

"You say it like I suck at it," I replied. "You know I don't. Bella...she's different. Something's different. I'm thinking she's gonna be gifted."

"Trouble," Peter said, pulling on a t-shirt. "She's gonna be trouble."

**Peter**

**!#$%^&**

Animals. He wants me to hunt animals. He might as well kick me in the fuckin' dick, add some injury to that insult. Bastard. Fuckin' bastard. "Ain't sure what good I am here."

Bella walked at Jasper's side, clearly still irritated with him, but dealing well enough, as far as these things go. "I just need your help to make sure if she takes off we catch her." We'd only just broken through the forest line, and I was ready to lay em' all out on their asses.

"She's standing right here," Bella snapped, before visably calming herself. "Sorry. I just...I don't want to drink from...humans. I can't kill people."

"Thas' real nice," I replied. "I don't want to drink from animals but I ain't knockin' your lifestyle choices."

"She didn't mean it like that," Jasper replied, coiling his hand into Bella's. "Give her a fuckin' break."

"I...," she paused, closing her eyes for a moment, her mouth curling back from a slipped snarl. "No, I didn't mean it like that. I don't judge you Peter...it's just not what I want."

"Fine," I sighed. It was gonna be mighty hard to hate her if she was gonna be like that. "Whatever. I'll take point, you take rear. There's a stream that cuts through here about a mile in. We get a-lotta elk in these parts, and the occasional bear. Try not to kill the mommas, if you can manage that," I added, watching as the girl as she nodded, her face serious. "Just...have a little fun with it. I'mma run ahead, and you follow, but don't you dare pass me."

"It's going to be disorienting, at first. None of the scents will be exactly good, but follow whatever one you find most so. There is no real rhyme to this; your body will lead you where it must go. Follow your instinct, and you should be fine. If you come across something that smells... overly appealing, hold your breath and run home. Peter or I will come to you," Jasper picked up where I'd left off, his diction careful, all the angry country drawl from early gone from his calm voice. I couldn't help but think it was a fuckin' waste on him. I'm an honest man, if I'm nothin' else, and I've never been ashamed to say that Jasper was a good lookin' guy, but that city-boy shit didn't do much for me.

"Right," she said shortly, giving Jaspers hand a squeeze. "Thank you. Both, I mean. Thank you both."

I shrugged, sprinting forward. "Whatever."

I could hear the girls' quiet murmur of, _"He doesn't like me much, does he?"_ carried by the wind. I didn't care, couldn't feel guilty. Truth be told, she was right. No, I didn't really like her much.

She picked it up easy enough, catching a young buck down by the river. She'd overestimated her pounce, breaking the elk's front leg on impact. They tumbled head long into the shallow river, and I watched from my perch in a high tree as she pinned it down awkwardly, breaking off one antler, before she managed to get her knee against its ribs. They broke too, and the elk cried out in agony.

The drain was messy; she'd bled half the elk right out into the water, but like a babe with a tit, once she latched on she was good as gold. Her fingers flexed against the rough pelt as the animal finally gave up, falling limp. Jasper was downwind, crouched in his own tree, eyes trained on the baby. It was kind of hard to not to look at the train-wreck before us. Not that it came as a surprise; it'd take her a coupl'a tries before she got it down to a science.

**xXxXx**

I'd busied myself in the front yard with a pile of plywood and a circular-saw as soon as we got back to the house. Jasper'd gone upstairs with Baby, beyond that I didn't want to think. I'd gotten the impression they hadn't fucked yet, and I'd be damned if I was gonna sit on my ass waitin' for them to get to it. I'd half a notion to slam a cock-block on the bastard and straight up put my foot down on the notion all together.

Jasper was leaning against his truck, watching me silently as I cut down the wood to even planks for the new steps on the porch. When it was apparent he wasn't movin', I flicked the saw off, setting it down before speakin'. "Whats up, hoss?"

"Bella thinks you hate her," Jasper said. Boy didn't beat around the bush. "I told her you might."

"An' you call me a peach," I said, brushin' sawdust of my shimmering chest. "I ain't got a problem with the girl, Jazz. Just the bitch that brought her in."

"I don't know what to do here," he said at length, sinking down onto the porch step. "I'm afraid to try leavin'. We've already seen how well I can handle her if she works herself up. But...I can't keep her here if you're going to be a dick."

"I didn't ask you to come," I said, gathering up the cut-wood. "I didn't ask you to show up with a bomb like that. You may not like it, but I sure as fuck ain't gonna do anything I don't want to. I wanna be a dick, I'mma be a dick. Ain't nothing you don't deserve."

"I'm not asking you to forgive me," Jasper gritted out. "I'm asking you to not take it out on her, okay? She doesn't know and I don't-"

"Looks like you got a right little problem then, huh?" I cut in. "Who's to say I won't tell your Baby. I'd be doing her a service, boy. You ain't her mate, and she should know that. You're all kinds of asshole right now, sitting back and lettin' her think otherwise."

"You can't tell her."

It hurt to hear it, hurt to know that I wouldn't, because damned if I could hurt him, even after all this shit. Damned if I could do anything to hurt him like that. "Yeah, I reckon I can't. But that girl, she oughta know."

He closed his eyes, resting his head against the porch rail. "I know I gotta tell her. I know...I know I run the risk that one day she's gonna...find someone who..."

"Someone who fits like no one else can?" I supplied. "Someone she'll put above you, above all others like a vampire should when it comes to their mate?"

"Peter..."

I chuckled, grabbing the saw back up, and if that wasn't a sign that this shit was over, Jasper'd figured it out anyways. He rose up off the steps, disappearing into the house, and I got to listen to him hunt his baby down, all soft words and softer kisses.

**xXxXxXx**

"What now?" The baby asked, fresh from a second shower, dressed in another pair of strange, skin tight stretch-pants that I wasn't exactly knockin'. Looked like somethin' one of them new age hippy-yoga chicks would wear. Strange, but not...awful.

"Well, I reckon you gotta wind down a bit after your hunt. I'mma get back to tearing up the kitchen, and Jasper? Well he can just go an fuck off," I finished with a smile.

The Baby frowned, head falling to the side half-cocked. "I thought you two were friends? Are you mad at him? I...It's my fault, isn't it?"

I took her by the elbow, gently leading her up the stairs to the third floor landing. Jasper lingered behind us, caught up in his own damn thoughts apparently. "Now don't y'all go getting that into your pretty head. Ain't none of this your fault, Baby. Jasper and I we..."Jaspers spike of panic stabbed me square between the shoulder blades, like a threat. "Jasper and I go way back. With that kinda history, there's bound to be problems. Don't you go upsettin' yourself over it, we're big boys, we'll work it out."

"I don't want to be a burden," she replied, hands skating delicately across the top of the freshly stained, French-molded wainscoting. "From what I can recall, Jasper always spoke so nice about you, I don't know what to make of you fighting. It's...kind of confusing I guess."

"We're not fighting Baby B," I assured her, wishing I didn't have to. I'd really have liked to just hate her, but she was kind of a doll, and I'd been honest when I said it wasn't her fault.

She laughed, all bells and sunshine, lighting up her whole goddamn face. Jesus Kentucky Fried Christ, he'd picked a beautiful girl. "Baby B?"

"Jasper didn't tell you?" I asked, but I'd known he hadn't. Hadn't said much to her, to be honest. "All the newborns get nicknames."

"Peter's newborn nick name was Dickhead," Jasper said, appearing at the top of the stairs. "He was kind of an asshole to start."

"Jasper," Bella sighed. "Maybe you should be nice to Peter, he's helping us."

Jasper winced, but I smiled. To be honest, Jasper'd sounded a hell of a lot more like the man I'd known way-back-when in that last sentence than he had since he'd arrived. "S'fine Baby B, Jazz's right. Boy ain't got much to say though, Emo."

"Wow, I had no idea hipster-lingo could sound even more stupid 'til I heard it from a Texan," Jasper replied, smiling. Things weren't okay, but we could pretend, I guess.

I shrugged, pushing open the fourth door on the right. "This'll be a good place for you to wind down. It was the first room I bothered to finish," I explained, stepping into the modest little library I'd hunkered down. "You know, when you don't shit, sleep or eat, your priorities tend to getta little skewed."

"Wow," Baby breathed, rushing past me, running her hands along the rows of books, eyes alight. "Wow."

"She likes to read," Jasper explained at my obvious confusion. He had a little smile on his face that I wanted to smack off. I didn't mind seeing the girl happy, but he was still a dick.

"Holy shit, you have like...first edition leather-bound Jane Austin," she said, as she plucked a copy of Pride and Prejudice from the shelf. I cringed, ghosting forward and tugging it from her hands gently.

"Yeah...I'mma have to ask you stick to the paper backs 'til you get your ass in order," I informed her, sliding the book back in place. "I'm sure y'all understand."

She had enough sense to look a little chagrined through her pretty smile. "Sorry," she said, snorting. "You know, all this Jane Austin. It's kind of gay."

The off-hand comment was made worth it by Jaspers sudden shift to mortified panic, which made even Baby cock her head confused. I laughed, handing her a paperback copy of Emma off the shelf. "Well, you may have noticed I got myself a bit of a penchant for interior decorating," I said, raising a brow.

She looked appropriately mortified, hands rushin' to her mouth like an embarrassed southern-belle. It kinda took me back. That is, until she started talkin'. "Oh fuck, I am so sorry. That was, like, really fucking rude of me. I didn't know...Jasper didn't say anything and dammit. Wow. Yeah. You don't look gay at all!" she blurted, her eyes goin' wide.

Puttin' on a hurt smile, I sighed dramatically. "It's hateful thinkin' like that Baby B, that's giving Vampires like me a bad rap. Y'all think 'cause I'm pitchin' for the home team, I still can't be a good ol' spur-and-Stetson Texan?"

"That isn't what I meant!" she cried, fingers clenching at her sides.

I snorted, watching her work herself into a little tizzy. "It ain't a problem, Baby. I know you didn't mean it, I'm just fuckin' around. You had no way'a knowin', so don't upset yourself. Jasper, he ain't real comfortable with it, reckon he never has been. Though, I'd like to think we're all a little bit gaypire, what with the sparklin' and all. Anyway, I'm a dicks-or-chicks kinda guy. Equal opportunist, and all that, Baby."

My banter fell a little flat as Baby's eyes flickered back to Jasper, a little scowl on her face. "Peter's preferences shouldn't matter, Jasper."

"They don't!" His mouth dropped open, but not before castin' me a mean glare. "That's not what Peter means, Bella. Right, Peter?"

"Right, right," I said, rolling my eyes. "He don't give a damn who I like." Unless it was him, and then all bets were off. "Why don't you hunker down up here for a while, get your bearings. I'mma be in the kitchen, if'n y'all need me."

"Do you need any help?" Jasper asked, standing in my way at the door.

I snorted, giving him a long up-and-down stare before shakin' my head. "Not from you, city boy."

**A/N So Peter can't bring himself to hate on Bella, but he sure can take it out on Jasper. Jasper was an ass, and has no right saying shit about how Peter's treating him. Oh, and there is a banner. http:/twitpic (dot) com/2xy6ib**


	4. Chapter 4

**Five Seconds To Death Chapter 4/?**

**Author **: Lifeless Lyndsey

**Pairing: **This was tough to pick. Mainly, it's JasperxBella through the whole fic, with a side of JasperxPeter, PeterxBella, JasperxPeterxBella (take your pick. it rotates) Also, a little PeterxOMC

**Warning**: M for language, lemons, slash, possible threesomes, possible gore.

**Word Count:** Just north of 4k

**Beta:** VampishVixen - my Beta Life-Partner.

**Disclaimer:** I own nearly nothing , not the characters, not the Bella, not Jasper, but maybe a little bit of the Peter

**A/N Okay, so you guys have been totally freaking awesome. Love the reviews. You make my day. Anyways, there is a little PeterxOMC lemon in this chapter, and I know some people don't care for OMC's, so bear with me if you could. **

_**Previous**_

_"Right, right," I said, rolling my eyes. "He don't give a damn who I like." Unless it was him, and then all bets were off. "Why don't you hunker down up here for a while, get your bearings. I'mma be in the kitchen, if'n y'all need me."_

_"Do you need any help?" Jasper asked, standing in my way at the door._

_I snorted, giving him a long up-and-down stare before shakin' my head. "Not from you, city boy._

**Jasper POV**

"What's with you and Peter?" Bella asked, sitting down a little harder than she anticipated. The high-backed chair transferred the force, cracking the shining mahogany floor board. "Fuck!" she growled, hands shaking so hard she dislodged a page from the book Peter had handed her.

"Don't worry about it, I'll take care of it," I assured her, washing her with just a touch of serenity. Serenity was a hard emotion to master; it was different for every one, but she seemed to melt a little, giving me an apologetic smile. It wasn't enough to distract her, though.

"So, are you going to tell me?" she asked lightly, but I could taste her confusion over the general air of agitation and faulty calm. "I thought you were friends."

"We...were," I said at length, sinking down onto the floor beside her chair. One chair; there was only one chair, one lonely chair. Just Peter's chair, and no one else's, and fuck, I kind of hated the chair.

'"Jasper?"

"We were friends," I picked up immediately. "When I left, we lost touch. Peter wasn't...he wasn't happy when I left. I wanted to stay in touch but we had a...a falling out I guess. I figured I was doing him a favor staying away." I was a liar, a dirty little liar. I stayed away because seeing him all alone, with one fucking chair, it hurt.

I pulled Bella out of the lonely chair, tugging her into my lap. She laced her fingers with mine, thumb tracing the ridged scars on the back of my hand with a frown. "That's ridiculous!" she growled abruptly, clenching her hand around mine. "Sorry," she then murmured as I shoved my thumb back in the socket.

Bella closed her eyes like Peter had instructed her, giving herself a moment to gather her wits. "I mean, he should have been happy you were in love."

"I kind of left Peter, Bella," I admitted quietly. "What I did was wrong. I abandoned him. We were...we were a Coven. A family. He's got every right to be angry at me."

Bella frowned. "You won't leave me, right?"

"Never," I promised, pressing a kiss on her check. She smiled, twisting her body to lay her head on my shoulder. She brushed her mouth against my neck, licking a cool line up my jaw.

"Bella..."

"Did I do something wrong?" she asked, pulling back, her eyes as wide as silver dollars. "I thought we were...I mean, I know we haven't, but..." She blinked rapidly, fingers clenching.

I'd only just opened my mouth to spout more sharp-edged truths, when Peter spoke. "I'm going out," he said from the doorway, dressed in clean jeans and a dark shirt. His hat may have matched his boots, both scuffed black leather, but his expression didn't match his emotions. He looked calm and cocky as ever, but he felt about ready to murder.

Bella had sprang form the chair, crouching instinctively. I made the mistake of grabbing her arm, and fuck me, Peter was right; I was out of practice. She spun faster than I had anticipated, slamming me back. Peter grabbed me moments before I hit the window, flying through the room in a blur of white. Together, (god when was the last time I'd used that word with him?) we pinned her, while he barked out an order, and I fought to pump out some sort of calm.

"Not. A. Threat." Peter bit out, slapping Bella's cheek lightly when she snapped at his hand. I hated it, hated the manhandling, but I knew there was no other way to handle a baby. There was nothing gentle about this. "You did good Baby B. You reacted to danger as you shoulda', but you gotta learn to assess your threats. You attacked Jasper when you shoulda' attacked me. Always go for your biggest threat."

"You did this on purpose?" I hissed, waiting for Bella to relax before releasing my twist on her arm. Peter let go of her hair, and she laid her cheek on the floor, eyes clamped shut. "You get all up in my shit about upsetting her, but you spring out of fucking no where with the intention of getting her all worked up? What the fuck is wrong with you?"

Peter rolled his eyes. "I don't remember tellin' you I was gonna train her up like a tea cup Chihuahua, boy. I make fighters, warriors, not Southern Belles. Baby done wrong when she picked you," he smirked. "You certainly ain't the biggest threat in this room."

"No," I said abruptly. "Just...no. You can't train her like that. I won't allow it."

"Wasn't askin' your permission. Look, you came crawlin' to me, Jasper. Not a phone call, not a heads up, fuck, I hadda get a call from Alice! I'm thinking you're gonna take whatever I got to give. We do things my way, or you can pack it up and leave," Peter replied with a don't-give-a-fuck shrug.

"_She_ is standing right here," Bella said glaring at me hard enough to hurt. Her hands were balled at her sides, fingers cutting tiny crescent-moon slices into her palms.

"Close your eyes," Peter said at once, and Bella listened, just like that. Jesus fuck, I had no control here. "Count to five, and open them. Then I want you to sit down, and shut up. Got it, B? You don't sit down and shut up, I'mma make you. Might borrow them feet of yours and maybe your tongue. So what's it gonna be?"

She glared, eyes fluttering to a close. Five seconds passed, long enough for Peter and me to scream at each other in the silence. I glowered, and he ignored me, grinning like an idiot when Bella sank into the chair.

"S'good, Baby B. Real good,"he praised her, and her anger thawed if only slightly so. "We're gonna get some real trainin' in here real soon, I promise. You're gonna love it."

"No we are _not_!" I snapped. "She doesn't need combat training Peter! Dammit!"

Peter smirked, dropping his battered hat onto his head, flicking the brim up. "And why is that?"

"Because!" I growled. "She just doesn't."

Chuckling, Peter turned to Bella, who was still stewing heatedly in the chair. "How'd you feel about that, Baby B?"

Permission had been granted to speak apparently, fucking _fuck_, and she had a lot to say. "Why don't you want Peter to train me? Don't you think I could do it? I'm not a fucking child!" She slammed her hand down, breaking the arm off the chair. "Sorry Peter," she grounded out painfully between her teeth.

Peter shrugged, looking and feeling more amused with every minute. "That's okay, B. S'ugly chair anyway. Go on Jasper, tell your girl why you don't think I should train her up real nice."

"She doesn't need it," I snapped, turning to Bella. "You don't need it," I tried to explain but fuck if I was gettin' through to any of them. When the hell had I lost control of this fuckin' situation? Peter had no fuckin' right overstepping me, dammit! "I'll always take care of you," I said adamantly, wishing I could reach out to her without risking limbs.

My obvious attempt to placate her only served to make it worse. She tore the dangling, broken arm off the chair and hurled it at me with all the force she could muster. I caught it, thank fuck, because fuck, I was really off my game. "What the fuck, Jasper?" she screeched, springing up from the chair. Peter growled at her, snapping his fingers and she forced herself back down, but I could see the effort to obey was making her shake. "You want me helpless don't you? You want me dependent. That is so much fucking _shi_t!"

"No!" I blurted out, falling to my knees beside the chair. "No, never. Baby, I just want to take care of you. I'm supposed to take care of you. That's what the man does."

Holy Fucking Women's Rights, I was asking for her to kick my ass. She was currently flooding me with an unhealthy combination of murderous rage and indignation as she raised one brow and snarled at me. "Oh, no you fucking _didn't_," she growled quietly.

Peter chuckled from the door way. "Well, my work here is done. Try not to break...much. See you all in the mornin'!"

**Peter**

**!#$%&**

Christ on a cracker, I couldn't even do my fuckin' dishes for fuck's sake. I could hear them, every single fucking word, and if that wasn't enough, Jasper was leakin' off enough lust to get twitchin' in my britches. No_ respect_, that motherfucker had no respect. Goddamn it, no. Just _no_.

I'd found em', all wrapped up in each other like they weren't on the floor in my fuckin' library. My inner fuckin' sanctum, and they're half way to undressin' each other right fucking there. My goddamn eye was twitchin'. Oh hell _no_. I'd had it in my mind to ruin this little fuckin' moment; if I got my way I'd have a cast-iron cock block on that bastard for the rest of the week.

That got the cogs spinnin', a plan forming; I'd always been good at subterfuge. Shit, _fuck_, I was the fuckin' master. Jasper wanted to play dirty, he didn't know what dirty was any more. All that pity party bull-shit _'I was so wrong'_. Hell yeah, he was wrong, and Baby B was getting down at that pity party. Coven? Coven! We weren't no coven, we weren't no family. We were nothin', we were absolutely fuckin' nothin' and he'd done that. He'd gone and done that, the stupid bastard.

I was murderous, itchin' to kill shit by the time I'd gotten to the door. I scared the shit outta baby, and just to my fuckin' luck she attacked him! Jesus, someone was on my side today. Stir up a little Women's Sufferage, and you got one hell of an angry Baby. It was worth the ruined chair, hell yeah it was, to see Jasper get himself all up in a fuckin' ruffle, caught between beggin' forgivness and glaring daggers at me. I left em' at it, grinnin' like a loon as I hopped down from my bedroom window into the bed of my Tahoe. Yeah, he sure as shit wasn't getting any ass tonight.

But that didn't mean I couldn't.

Now, I'd made it clear as day to Jasper that I'd been alone for these past sixty years, but that didn't mean I'd been lonely. I was a mate, not a monk. My sad, pathetic, unfortunate heart might'a belonged to that bastard, but my ass was my own.

"Well, if it ain't Peter himself. Boy I ain't seen you in some time," Hunter said, peering out his own front door. "You looking to hunt or fuck? Either way you look about ready to tear some shit up."

"You know me so well," I grinned at him from his front porch. He was leaning against the door frame, short and stocky with wide shoulders and narrow hips. He had dark hair, cropped short and neat. The perfect opposite of Jasper; one of the many, many reasons I liked him. "I'm up for either. Or both, you know, whatever."

"Dinner and a show, then." Hunter, the bastard, let his head fall to the side, a cocky little smile on his face, "Peter Whitlock, are you askin' me out on a date?"

"Fuck no, that shit's for pussies. I'm asking you if you're hungry, and later I'mma ask you who's bending who over what." Hunter, I had learned, respected blunt honesty, it had been the basis of our unconventional relationship for years now.

"I could eat," Hunter chuckled, pushing open his front door and joining me on the porch.

Hunter and Jasper had never been friends. It was most likely because Hunter was one of the only vampires to ever get, even a small, short-lived one, upper-hand on Jasper. Mighta been a reason I was quick to befriend him.

**!#$%**

The first hour after feeding was always the best, ain't no exception to that rule. Every vein in my body still burned; a burning cold that left me dizzy with it. Hunter, he was no better, very nearly drunk-giddy with it, shoving me against the fender of my truck.

The thing with Hunter was, well, he was kinda new at this and yeah, that was my fault. Jasper hadn't been wrong when he'd said finding someone to bat for your own team was easier said then done. Fact was, vampires were old ass shits, too stuck in their ways to get their heads out of their asses; Jasper being a really good example of that.

Hunter though, Hunter was a baby, barely sixty-five. He'd still been a newborn when Jasper and I'd gone and bolted. The fifties might notta' been a time of open-mindedness, but Hunter was young enough to get with it. It hadn't been hard to persuade him why _Brokeback_ _Mountain_ was worth watchin'. He'd taken to cock-suckin' like a duck to water.

He had blood on his face, dark red smeared across moon white, as he crowded me against my truck, grinnin'. "After dinner entertainment?"

"You know how I feel about talkin'," I said, tugging lightly on his belt loop. "Why bother flirtin'? We both know we gonna out."

"Semantics," he murmured, rolling his narrow hips. "Maybe I like the game?"

"Maybe I like your mouth," I snipped, un-buckling my belt with one hand, and giving him a pointed look. "But I like it better when you're not talkin'."

"You say the sweetest things," he countered, shoving his hand into my jeans. I let my head fall against the door of the truck with a _thunk_ as he pushed my jeans to my knees, belt-buckle jingling loudly in the silence.

At that point I'dda taken his sloppy hand job, I was so damned keyed up, but I mighta' sighed in relief as he dropped to his knees, fingers curling around the back of my thighs. Hunter was a lotta' things, but the boy was no tease. He got my cock in his mouth without as much as a lick, working me down his blood-warmed throat.

I kept my hands to my sides, knew that if I let myself, I'd go and try to brush my fingers through curls that just weren't there. Shit like that ruined a good blow job; shit like that just ruined me. Instead of thinkin' on the way that Hunter's hair was too short to tug, I focused on the way he had my whole goddamn dick down his throat and was still managin' to lick my balls at the same time. Messy, wet, loud, and sloppy, Hunter knew what to do with my dick.

Like I'd said, the kid had talent.

His nails bit into my legs, urging me forward, and_ hot damn_, yeah I'd take him up on that offer. I felt my arms raise up like they didn't belong to me, one hand curlin' over the handle of the door, the other just splayed out across the metal, a desperate attempt to just hold-the-fuck onto something as I snapped my hips forward and he took it like a little fuckin' bitch.

He pushed my shirt up, holding it against my chest as I fucked his mouth. Jesus, that mouth; he swallowed around me and damn me all to hell, that was just too much. "_Slut,_" I growled, curling my palm around his neck, wishing for a minute I could gag him, as he took it all like the goddamn champ I'd trained him to be. Let it never be said I wasn't a good fuckin' teacher.

He pulled back just as I came, mouth open, eyes closed. Yeah, he liked it like that; he liked to make a fuckin' mess. The shimmery white venom, and whatever else my jizz was made up of, sizzled against the smear of blood on his lip, and he licked it away before resting his head against my hip.

Now I ain't nothin' if not a giver, so I hauled his ass up by the shoulders, yanking the button on his jeans. It broke and I tossed it with a grin, freeing his dick without word. So hard up, the kid was always _so_ hard up for it. He growled and groaned, burying his face in my shoulder as I slid my hand down his shaft.

He kissed me, rough and dirty; the kind of kiss you get between two guys who are just _not_ girls. I mighta had a dick in my hand, but it didn't make me a fuckin' fairy. My fingers clenched around his cock as he nipped at my lip, shovin' his tongue between my teeth with a snarl. The truck protested against us.

Hunter, he didn't care how long my hair was, he just worked his fingers through it, crushing our mouths harder together, while he positively _fucked _my hand. Kid held nothing back; didn't see, or couldn't find, the shame in this. I licked a line up his neck, biting lightly at his first bite, _my_ bite, and that did it, like it always did. He came like a freight train straight across my stomach.

He let his head drop back onto my shoulder, and yeah, maybe if I had to admit it, I might tell you I let my cheek fall against his head. It's not cuddlin', we were standing up. I didn't love the boy, at least not like that, but Hunter was my boy. Not my _kid_, oh hell no, but he was a part of me that'd stuck around. I'd pulled his ass outta more trouble than I'd like to think on; what with so few of our old crowd left.

Our crew was practically getting tag-teamed by any dick-vampire up for the challenge. Shit wasn't equal, too many were dying. I'd seen enough half-ass covens thrown together just to keep alive. Hunter, well we may notta' been a coven, but we'd always had each others backs.

"You know, I can smell him all over you. I know what your doin'," he whispered, pressing up against me. "Don't be thinkin' I don't. Now, I ain't saying I saw it back then; being so far in the closet it was to dark to see my own dick. But I get it now, yeah, I get it. Was there somethin' going on with you and the Major, Whitlock?"

"Shut your mouth, Boom," I growled, turning my face away. I wanted my cock sucked, not a redneck inquisition. "Fuck this, I'm goin' home."

"He gotta girl, huh?" Hunter said, makin' no move to back up. "Got himself another girl."

"Newborn," I acceded, before smiling slowly. "Say, whatter you doin' tomorrow?"

**!#$%^&**

I stumbled in around four o'clock in the morning, a complete and utter fuckin' mess. My pants were practically fuckin' sparkling from where I'd wiped off Hunters lil' gift. I tossed my hat and keys on the counter, kicking my boots off at the door.

"Where the fuck have you been?" Jasper growled, ghosting down my stairs. His body was pulled taught with tension, teeth clenched in his mouth.

"Out," I growled, not willing to give up my post-coital high 'cause he wanted to be a little bitch. I could hear the water runnin' in the upstairs bathroom, and it wasn't the only thing I heard. "Hey, is Baby B gettin' busy with my shower head, or something?"

Jasper snarled, jaw clicking. "Yes, she is. And she's doing it to fucking_ torture _me because you are a goddamn douche bag." His nostrils flared before his eyes went wide, another growl tearing through his throat, this one darker, deeper, and a whole lot more feral.

It was fuckin' hot, is what it was.

His eyes skittered across my body, takin in what a fuckin' wreck I was. "Went huntin'," I said, smiling. No point in hiding it, Jasper knew I was lovin' this shit.

"With Hunter," he replied, choking on a growl.

"Well it is his name," I shrugged, leaning my hip against the counter. "What's it to you?"

"Why are you doing this?" he asked, swallowing hard. Goddamn it, he had the nerve to ask me that?_ He _had the nerve to ask _me_ that?

If I smiled then, it sure as shit wasn't pretty. "Baby," I said, just a quiet growl. "I reckon that ain't your business, anymore."

"It's always my bus-" He stopped himself, eyes clenching shut like he just couldn't do, couldn't keep himself in check. "You can't just-"

"I can't what?" I asked, steppin' up into his space. His nostrils flared again as he stumbled back into the kitchen door. He growled, lips curling back to show those shiny fuckin' teeth, as I crushed him against the wood, chest to come-stained chest. "What can't I do, Major? Can't go get me some? You do know I'm a sucker for a _purty_ mouth." The words were whispered so close to his mouth, I might'a been kissin' him if it wasn't for the snarls. And fuckin' hell, I didn't want to remind myself why we were whisperin'.

He shoved me hard, slamming me back against the counter. He couldn't tower over me, half an inch shorter as he was, but he shoved me, bending me backwards over the marble-top. "What are you trying to do? Why are you doing this? What do you _want _from me_?_" he growled, rough and quiet, and God, Jesus fuck, he was _hard_ against my leg. I wanted to whimper, or beg, or just fuckin' kiss him, but I _hated_ him, I just fuckin' hated him. He had no goddamn right!

I rolled my hips cruelly before shifting a leg between his. His eyes went wide and he pulled away, or at least he tried to. I grabbed his wrist, tugging him against me, words pouring outta my mouth without any sort'a permission. "All I want is to get my dick sucked, but I reckon' I already got that tonight, so baby boy, I don't need you for _nothin'_!"

That'd hurt him, I could feel it, even as I shoved him away. The triumph I wished I could'a felt was lost in his hurt, and I couldn't even revel in the point for Team Peter. I shoved him off me with a growl, and we just stared, caught up in our impasse.

"What are you guys doing?" Bella asked, stepping into the kitchen. Her calm face slipped some as she caught scent of me, and she shook her head. "Whoa, Peter, take a shower, you smell like a redneck whorehouse," she teased, fighting the scowl off her face. It made her look kind of demented, but I appreciated her effort. Any scent of another vampire was likely to set her off.

I chuckled. "Aw, B, don't be saying shit like that. You'll hurt Hunter's feelings." I looked past her, where Jasper had repositioned himself at her shoulder. "He's even offered to come help us out with your training tomorrow."

**A/N So, I hope the OMC lemon didn't squick you guys. Hunter isn't a major important character in this story, I'm not even sure if I'll use him often yet. Anyway, I'm posting pictures of Hunter, Peter, Jasper, and Bella. Any of you know who Wentworth Miller is? Cause that's Hunter. Just saying. Hot.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Five Seconds To Death Chapter 5/?**

**Author **: Lifeless Lyndsey

**Pairing:** This was tough to pick. Mainly, it's JasperxBella through the whole fic, with a side of JasperxPeter, PeterxBella, JasperxPeterxBella (take your pick. it rotates) Also, a little PeterxOMC

**Warning: **M for language, lemons, slash, possible threesomes, possible gore.

**Word Count:** Just north of 6k

**Beta**: VampishVixen - my Beta Life-Partner.

**Disclaimer:** I own nearly nothing , not the characters, not the Bella, not Jasper, but maybe a little bit of the Peter

**A/N ** Okay, so there is a mild slash warning, as well as a het warning for this chapter. Also, there's some slight gore, if you can consider it that. If you get squicked by the removal of limbs, well, prepare to flinch a bit.

**Thanks for all the review love. If I replied to you drunk, I apologize. **

**Previously**

_"What are you guys doing?" Bella asked, stepping into the kitchen. Her calm face slipped some as she caught scent of me, and she shook her head. "Whoa, Peter, take a shower, you smell like a redneck whorehouse," she teased, fighting the scowl off her face. It made her look kind of demented, but I appreciated her effort. Any scent of another vampire was likely to set her off._

_I chuckled. "Aw, B, don't be saying shit like that. You'll hurt Hunter's feelings." I looked past her, where Jasper had repositioned himself at her shoulder. "He's even offered to come help us out with your training tomorrow."_

**And now...**

**Jasper **

**!#$%**

This was unacceptable.

God, what was wrong with me?

Hunter. Fucking Hunter.

"Y'all right there, Jazz?" Peter asked with a smirk so big I wanted to hit him. "Who the hell shit in your britches? Keep actin' like this and ol' Hunter's gonna think he ain't welcome."

I snarled, of course, because I wasn't acting crazy and irrational enough already. It didn't help that Bella was fucking twitching with anticipation so badly we'd sent her out back to calm the fuck down. Peter and I were on the deck watching her weave through the trees on the edge of the forest.

"Why is he helping us? There isn't anything he can do that I can't do better," I snarled, tearing my hands off the railing before I broke it.

Peter snorted, giving me a lecherous look, before licking his teeth and grinning. "Oh, I don't know about that," he said slowly, flicking up his hat. "Kid's got talent. Whole lotta' talent."

"I get it Peter, he can suck dick," I huffed, forcing myself to calm the fuck down. It didn't matter, it didn't fucking matter, holy fucking fuck, it didn't fucking_ matter_. "You're right. I'm sure he's great. It'll be good to see some of the old crowd or whatever. When the hell did he switch teams?" And where the_ fuck_ had that come from?

Peter looked fucking delighted by my spastic little Freudian slip. "I keep tellin' you. We're all a little gay. When it comes to Vampires, fuckin' is fuckin'. I might be a redneck, but you don't see me itchin to harvest some fuckin' crotch-fruit. We ain't got no urge to be spittin' out babies; with us it's purely sexual. Ain't no reason to limit ourselves to one specific gender, is all I'm saying."

"All you ever been saying," I grumbled. "So what you're telling me is you turned him gay? Bi, whatever. What did you do? Corner him too? How many times he say no before he gave in?" What the fuck was wrong with me today? I realized my mistake half moment too late, and wished all to hell I could swallow my tongue.

Peter's playful grin melted back into a snarl and he was on me in a hot minute. His hand wrapped around my jaw, lifting me straight up off the wooden slats of the porch. "Them's some pretty nasty accusations you're makin', Major Whitlock." He squeezed his fingers roughly, knocking a handful of back teeth straight out of my gums, and shaking me till I was forced to swallow them back. His eyes were flat, empty black, glinting with nothing but danger. "You got somethin' to say? Need to get somethin' off that puffed up chest of yours?"

"Not everyone is as open as you are, Peter," I ground out. He had me in the perfect fucking position for easy decapitation, and _goddamnit,_ I'd let him get the advantage. I trusted him too much not to hurt me, and maybe I was dumb for it. "Not everyone...wants _that_."

"What? You think I pushed at him? Think I forced him? Think I took what I wanted? Oh Jasper...if I were the kind of man to take what I wanted..." His voice faded into growls, vibrating through his body like a hum as his fingers clenched on my jaw. "Did I ever do anything to you that you didn't like? Did I _ever_ force you? I don't seem to recall the word 'no' fallin' from _your_ pretty mouth. You're toein' a line I don't like, and I really don' think it's in your best interest to push me, ya hear?"

Fuck me sideways with a butter knife, but I couldn't help but push. I couldn't figure out where Peter and I stood, and I was angry, mostly at myself, for doing this to us. We were _friends _once, the fucking best. I couldn't help but push, and the words that fell from my mouth were venom coated and vicious, and I would regret them 'til my last day.

"You're his sire, you're close to him. He'd want to please you." Jesus Christ, what was wrong with me? Why couldn't I stop?

Peter swallowed hard, slamming me back against the column holding up the second story balcony. "_Stop_ talking!" he snarled, rattling me hard.

"You know how it works. There wasn't anything I wouldn't do for Maria in the beginning, when she had me close. Is it rape if he lets you do it? Sometimes I wonder if it we were just-"

Pain blossomed across my face as my ears were filled with the metallic tearing sound of my own bottom jaw being torn from my face, rending me unable to do little more then shriek.

I wanted to tell him I knew that, that I knew he would never, ever hurt anyone that way. I wanted to tell him I was sorry I even said it, but I couldn't, not without my jaw. Which was...somewhere else entirely. Goddamn it. I couldn't hear a thing over the venom pounding in my ear.

Suddenly, someone was pulling him away, all soothing words and rough touches. Hunter, _God_, I hadn't seen that face in years, had his arms wrapped tight around Peter's body, tugging him backwards, away from me.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" he snarled, pushing Peter back behind him, as if to protect him from _me_. Maybe he wasn't wrong for it. I'd hurt Peter worse than anyone could. "What the fuck is _wrong_ with you?" he asked again, throwing something down at my feet. Jesus Christ it was a goddamn leg. A leg that ended in a purple Converse. "Sorry about your girlfriend's leg and shit, but she totally attacked me while you were busy accusin' Peter of...of what exactly, you goddamn fucker! It's Peter! You know Peter! How could you even..." He gave me a disgusted look, grabbing Peter, and pushing him towards the door. "Come on Peter, let's go inside."

Peter swallowed, his eyes no less black. "Get your newborn and go. I don't want you here."

**Peter **

**!#$%^&**

Hunter steered me upstairs, manhandlin' me into my room on the third floor, until I collapsed onto the bed, no less angry than before.

"So it's safe to say, from what I did hear, that you and the Major did have a thing," Hunter said, pointlessly. "What's going on?"

"Nothin'," I growled, feelin' him fall back onto the bed beside me. "Nothin' at all."

"You know...you can't actually send them away, right? That newborn, she's too much for one vampire to handle. She damn near took my head off. What the hell she doin' off alone? I found her muckin' around in the front yard."

"She wasn't alone," I said, defensively. Then again, at the time, I had no idea where she'd gotten off to, preoccupied as I was. "I ain't so sure I can do this. You know any'un who can take em' off my hands?"

"Any'un you know who's real happy with Jasper right now, Peter?" Hunter asked, rollin' onto his side beside me. "He wasn't around when we needed him. Ain't saying that's a real good reason to go on hatin', but we coulda used his help, s'all I'm saying."

"He didn't know," I said, quiet and defeated. "That damned little bitch of his, the Seer, she didn't tell him. That whole family, they're real insular. Can't blame him, I know he'da been here, iff'n he'd known."

There was a knock on the door, hard enough to nearly crack the wood, and Baby limped in without so much as a howdy-do. "Oh shit! Sorry! Sorry! Dammit!" she hissed, looking an unhealthy cross between mortified and upset. She growled at Hunter, body tensing to attack or run. She kinda had an expression I reckon one might get when they catch their parents bumpin' uglies, crossed with an expression saved for ornery lions.

I sat up at once, barkin' out a sharp order. "Eyes closed, don't breath! Hunter is not a threat unless I tell you he is a threat, do you understand? You are safe here."

"Safe," she murmured, swallowin' hard, and nodded. Her eyes were closed and her hands were balled into fists at her side. "Jesus, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to barge in, it's just that Jasper said we were leaving, and I...are you really sending us away?"

Hunter gave me a pointed look, one brow raised. "No, Baby B, I' ain't gonna put y'all out on your asses that way. Jasper and I just...we're not gettin' on as hot as we use to. Did you help Jasper put his jaw back on?"

"He wouldn't let me. I'm not even sure I have my leg on all the way. It feels funny," she explained, shifting on her feet.

"Sorry about that, sugar. I wasn't expecting the attack," Hunter offered quietly, remainin' where he was beside me.

She nodded stiffly, the sound of his voice bringing out a slight snarl on her face. "I suppose it could have been my head, so...thank you, I guess."

I sighed, bumping Hunter with my shoulder. "Go help the bastard put his face together and I'll get Baby fixed up."

"If he'll let me," Hunter said. "But I didn't sign on for this."

Hunter left us, trudging down the stairs loudly. "Come on in, darlin', have a seat. I want you to open your eyes, and breath real' deep. Hunters scent's gonna be real' strong, I want you to get associated with it."

"He smells like gunpowder and...pepper, or something," Baby said, sitting herself beside me.

"Always thought as much, myself. He blows shit up, that's his thing, s'why we call him Boom. So I guess it makes sense he'd smell a little...fiery." I admitted, trying not to shift away as she scooted herself closer. "Y'all right, Baby B?"

"Jasper is mad and I have no idea why. And my head is such a mess; I can't keep myself in check. And my leg is all wrong."

"I'd offer to fix it but it'll involve takin' off your pants, and I ain't so sure Jasper'll appreciate that. I'mma thinkin' you didn't attach it all the way around. Just up under the ass cheek s'kinda tricky place to rub venom in. Jaspers comin' up, why don't you ask him. Come on in, city-boy."

He pushed open the door, cupping his chin to his face, glaring fuckin' daggers at Hunter who was trailing behind him. "Won't let me help," Hunter said, looking so put-out I wouldn'ta blamed him if he up and left. "I'm a guessin' he wants you to do it."

Jasper nodded sharply, tiny bursts of murderous rage and guilt crackling off him. I patted Baby B's leg, and rolled my eyes, trying to keep her from fuckin' freakin' out anymore. She didn't have one clue as to what was really goin' on, and I kinda wanted to keep it that way.

"Why don't I go in the bathroom, and see if I can figure out how to fix my leg on my own," she offered, gently, but I could practically fucking feel her agitation rising. "Give you boys a minute to...measure your dicks, or something, because seriously, I want to kill you all and I don't need this. You're stressing me out!" she finished with a snarl, stomping awkwardly out the door. Typical newborn; zero to sixty rage.

Hunter shifted awkwardly in the doorway, and I sighed. "S'game on. Just hooked up the big screen in the Master Suite. Stick around if you want, but uh...I get it, if you wanna take off."

He shrugged, toeing the line of my doorframe. "Nah, I'll hang. If you're thinkin' we're good to go, we'll work on some tactile shit while the baby's still all riled up. If not, maybe we can go out tonight," he grinned, ignoring Jasper entirely.

"We hunted yesterday," I reminded him, watching him smirk.

"Hunting ain't all we do."

He shut the door in Jasper's face, just as the Major made to lunge forward, one hand still holding his damned jaw in place. "Oh sit the fuck down," I growled, too tired for this shit. "I hate you so much right now."

He let it be known that his ass was sorry with the press of regret washing over my skin. "Save it. You're the biggest ass-hat I've ever had the luck of meetin'," I said. "Sit the fuck down, and let me see the damage."

He sat, stiff and ginger on the bed's edge, turning his head to face me. I didn't know what to fuckin' say to him, too mad to really care that he was sorry. Bitch had accused me of fucking...of..."Rape, Jasper?"

He looked away, lashes fluttering and I wanted to dig my fingers into the open wounds where his jaw hadn't stitched completely to the skin. "The cut's too bad to heal on its own, you know what I gotta do, right? I ain't doing anything you don't want me to? Ain't forcing you?"

He nodded, wincing some of the freshly knitted skin stretched and tore. I wasn't gentle when I took his face into my head, pushin' it 'til he exposed his neck, and the long, half-healed cut that stretched from ear to ear where I had torn. "Lay back. This angle isn't gonna work."

Stiff as a fuckin' board, he fell backwards, his arms folded over his chest. I kneeled beside him, one hand braced at each side of his head. I nudged his hand with my nose, close enough to breathe him now and it hurt because I remembered the last time I had him like this. It had been a kiss then, not this mess. Leaning forward, I licked the cut, just beneath the ear, tasting his skin as my venom seeped into the open wound. He twitched beneath my mouth, as I followed the line down his jaw, nudgin' his chin up as I followed the path of torn skin.

Felt like slow motion, like the world was turnin' just a little bit slower as his hand slid from his chest, fingers curlin' around my elbow, just as I licked across his cheek, my venom trailing down his neck, poolin' in the hallow of his throat. I followed the line slowly, inch by excruciatin' inch, pushin' my venom into the knittin' cut. Jaspers fingers clenched as I reached the corner of his mouth, my tongue brushin' across his lips so light it might not have happened at all.

The other side of his jaw started the same way; I began beneath the earlobe, little kitten licks where the skin had begun to heal. I could feel his flesh begin to stitch beneath my tongue, sliding across his barely stubble-covered cheek until I reached the corner of his mouth, lips brushin' just so, not a kiss but as much as I was gettin'. I pulled away, wanting so bad to just up and run; just get away from this. I couldn't do this.

Then his other hand was on the small of my back, and just like that it was 1946; just him and me and no Alice or the Cullens.

But it wasn't, I told myself, it wasn't like that, he wasn't mine no more, and God, I tried, I tried to pull away, but his fingers were creepin' up my shirt. Tried to say no, needed to say no, but then the fucker kissed me, and I was done.

I was on my the flat of my back in a second, crushed beneath a hundred and eighty pounds of the real Major Whitlock; none of that pussy city-boy that'd shown up on my door step. We were in real trouble here, this was gonna end real bad, but I sure as shit couldn't bring myself to stop him.

My hands grabbed when they should pushed, and his hands were no better; one curled around my hip, pinning me in place, and the other curled around my neck so gentle it made my heart hurt. I felt my hands move with no instruction on my part, tanglin' themselves up in his curly fuckin' hair. The second his tongue brushed across my own, I was purrin', archin' up into him like a motherfuckin' whore for it. And I was, really, when he had me like this.

He was grindin' down, his dick pressed hard into my hip, and I was no better, fucking up against him like a bitch in heat. I needed this like I needed blood. All the shit I'd shoved down, it was crashin' back on top of me.

"_Baby,_" he rasped, mouthing against my jaw, and that was all it fuckin' took to come crashin' down. I shoved him off me, and it hurt to do, but he'd said the one goddamn thing to break me.

"I ain't your baby," I growled, wiping my mouth on the back of my hand.

All that heat and passion, all that fuckin' love and lust that belong to me, went right outta his eyes and he leaned over the side of my bed and fuckin' puked, nothing but the wet splatter of blood-curdled venom and the occasional _plink_ of a tooth hittin' the hard wood. My bed reeked of him; was gonna reek of it for weeks. If I was lucky.

I lived to torture myself.

And as fast as I had him off me, the door burst open, Baby B limpin' in, followed by a bewildered lookin' Hunter. He took one look at the scene and just fuckin' knew. Knew what I looked like when half fucked-out; knew what I smelled like when I was turned on.

"Oh my God! Jasper are you okay?" Baby rushed to his side just as he pulled back, turning his face to wipe his mouth on his shoulder. "Are those your _teeth_?"

"The healing process can sometimes be unsettling," Hunter offered, his eyes trained on me. "Especially with jagged wounds like the Major's."

"Mine didn't make me sick," Baby B commented, pulling Jasper against her. He looked nothing less than a pitiful fucking mess, but I didn't have an ounce of fuckin' pity left in me for anyone but myself.

I looked away from Hunter, unable to take the scrutinizing stare any longer. "Wait 'til Jasper gets lickin' on you," I tried to tease. "Sometimes the introduction of venom can make you a lil' sick. S'different, depending on the vampire. Took a bit to get his jaw on, but don't you worry, he'll be fine."

"Why don't Jasper and Bella go to their own room and you and I go out side for some air? You look a hot mess boy, and I think you could use it," Hunter suggested, still standing at the door.

"Yeah. Uh...yeah," I said awkwardly, turning to Jasper. "Baby B said something about walkin' funny, and since I know you hadn't stuck it to her yet, I reckon' it's her leg. The ass is a tricky thing to lick, all by yourself," I finished with a sad excuse for a teasing grin. The five seconds of deafening silence that followed had Hunter nudgin' me down the stairs, and out the back door.

As he led us out of earshot of the house, I knew I was in for a talkin'-to. Hunter never really had much to say, but when he did, the boy could bitch like no one's business.

"It ain't-"

And of course, he cut me off.

"What it looks like? Cause' I reckon it looked a hell of a lot like we just walked in on _somethin'_."

"It was nothin'," I denied, hoppin' up onto one of the low, dipped branches of an older pine tree. "I's healin' him, is all."

"Boy you must have some kind of nurse-and-patient kink then because I know what you smell like when you're all hot and bothered," Hunter said, hopping up beside me. "Baby don't know, but I know. What were you doin' up there with the Major? And with his girl all about too?"

"If you know so much, why don't you tell me?" I mumbled, turnin' away from him. I didn't need this, didn't want this kind of conversation with my goddamn fuck-buddy.

"Peter," he sighed, runnin' his fingers through his hair. "We've been fuckin' around a long time, but we've been friends longer. I'm just sayin'..."

"What are you sayin'? 'Cause all I'm hearing is _bitch, bitch, bitch_, Hunter, and I'm damned sick of getting shit on by everyone I care about. I ain't about to start takin' it from you " I snapped, tearing my nails through the stick bark, and tracing my fingers along the claw marks, just for somethin' to do.

"I'm just sayin' that in all the time I've known you, there ain't ever been any one else. Ain't been no one, really. Just me, and them's rare occasions. I ain't ever seen you get so worked up over no one, and what I want to know is..."

"What?" I said tiredly. "We both know I'll tell you if you ask."

"Peter, you ain't the kind'a man to break up a happy-family. You ain't the kind'a man to come between mates. I'm just wonderin' what's goin' on with you and the Major."

"And I'm tellin' you nothin's going on between he and I," I growled.

He nodded, bumpin' me with his shoulder in a show of quiet acknowledgment. "That girl, that Baby, you uh, you said they ain't fuckin' yet?"

"What of it?"

Hunter licked his lips, shifting awkwardly as he stared down between his feet at the ground. "They ain't mates, are they?"

"No," I mumbled, dread crawlin' across my skin like maggots on a hot day. "They ain't."

"And Miss Alice?"

"Nope."

Hunter sighed, giving my thigh a quick squeeze. "I thought that might be the case."

"Doesn't matter. He don't want _us_, don't want nothing to do with me. He's only here cause' he gotta be." And ain't that salt in the wound?

"And the bedroom?" Hunter pressed, his voice all kinds of calm and comfort.

"Don't know what happened. I guess...you know how healin' can get a lil' intimate. My mouth was just there and _bam_, he kisses me, pins me on the bed, and what am I gonna do? I'm gonna fuckin' let him. So I did, but then he calls me 'Baby' and all I can think of is her, and that shit ain't cash. I shoved him off me, and what does he do? He pukes. I make him puke, Boom. Fuckin' great."

"Dude," Hunter drawled, giving me a grin. "He totally puked up his teeth."

"Good," I grouched. "I hope he fuckin' chokes on em'."

**Jasper**

**!#$%^&**

As I pushed Bella into our room, I could still taste Peter on my tongue. I'd gotten most my teeth back in, all the ones I puked up anyway. "Take off your pants," I snapped. I'd meant to ask, meant to help her, but it came out like a harsh bark, a demand, even. "Please," I added as an afterthought.

"I think it's just the back part," she explained, pushing her knit pants to the floor without an ounce of shame. Seem'd she'd lost that in the change. She wasn't nothing but a ball of mischief and lust as she cast me glance over her shoulder. "How do you want me?"

Jesus Christ, if I wasn't hard already from...before, this would have done it. "On the bed," I said quietly, biting my lip. One never really knew where Peter was, but I couldn't hear Hunter anywhere in the house. I'd seen them out the window, disappearing into the woods, and figured they wouldn't be back for a while. I hated the idea that Peter was working off what _I'd _done to him with Hunter, and I hated that I even cared. But if Bella got her way, I wasn't any better. It didn't matter. He could do whatever the fuck he wanted with Hunter. Didn't matter if he wanted fucking_ Boom_, the goddamn little fucker. Wasn't my business.

"On all fours," I ordered, not even bothering to take the bite out of my tone this time. I was too keyed up to fuck around really, too keyed up to calm the fuck down. She dropped onto the bed, ass in the air, looking for all the world like a picture out of Playboy. I could see the rip in her thigh, curving up under ass. It was a clean break, I'd give the _boy_ that much. He hadn't been aiming to maim, just to dispatch, and he'd done well enough.

She was wet already, and I itched to touch and lick and bite; anything to get the taste of Peter out of my mouth because it was driving me crazy. There was no reason I should have wanted to be anywhere else but here, but all I wanted was to find him, or fuck him, and maybe punch Hunter in the face. I shouldn't have kissed him, shouldn't have let him heal me, but Bella didn't know how to heal, and I wasn't letting the little douche-monkey like Boom get anywhere near me.

I should'a known it was gonna be too much, but it hadn't been him that broke first, it'd been me. I upped and kissed him like a...like a...I don't even know. It broke all the walls I'd built over the decades, built up, and up, and up, 'til he was no part of me. I should'a known better, shoulda known I couldn't rip that part of me out of myself and still consider myself whole. Ain't nothing ever that easy.

"Jasper?" Bella whispered, looking over her shoulder, and I realized that I didn't love her any less for my transgression. Didn't love her any less because Peter was...because Peter was Peter. I fucking _loved_ Bella, fiercely, and nothing was gonna change that.

I dropped to my knees at the end of the bed, taking in the sight of smooth, scar-less skin. "S'not too bad, Bella. Nothing a little venom can't fix," I said, finding myself growling a little more with each word.

"Is that...,"she gasped as I palmed her ass, spreading her cheeks wide. The worst of the cut was at the inside thigh, just below where ass melted into thigh. "Did I do alright on my own?"

"Oh yeah, you did fine," I explained, nipping her cheek gently. "On neater wounds, you can just massage the venom in with your fingers. But with wounds like this, in the back where the skin didn't tear as neatly," I nosed along the curve of her cheek, "it's better to _lick_."

I wasted no more time, leaning up only to press my hand against her neck, forcing her face against the comforter. With her ass in the air, I licked along the line of the tear. She gasped, shuddering beneath me as my fingers skated up her thigh, pushing her knees apart 'til I could see all of her, every inch of wet, waiting pussy. God, newborns, always so fucking eager. She was shaking, trembling with it, as I brushed my thumb along her folds, still mouthing along her ass. Already the cut was healing; skin knitting neatly back together, leaving little more then a faint, white, shimmering line.

I shifted my hand, shoving her legs farther apart, 'til I was rubbing along her entrance with two fingers. She moaned, pressing back against my hand. I took the gesture as it was, pleading, and plunged both fingers inside her, tearing growls from her throat. She arched back like a cat, shoving her ass higher in the air, and I just couldn't take it any more.

I flipped her on her back, purring at the sight of her legs falling open without an ounce of hesitance. I fell forward between her thighs, licking a line straight up her until my tongue brushed her clit. The taste of Peter was lost to the taste of her, and I tried not to mourn it. She moaned, arching into me, little kitten-like growls escaping her lips with every swipe of my tongue. God, I knew she'd be like this; wild and unabashed. I nudged her legs farther apart, sinking my fingers back into her with one hand, and pinning her down by the hip with the other. Her fingers were curled into the bed spread, nails tearing strips from the charcoal gray fabric. My dick strained against the zipper of my pants, each metal tooth biting painfully into the head. I'd been half-hard the entire time, not even puking up a mouthful of my own teeth enough to wash away what Peter could do to me.

Jesus, I was in trouble. I was face down in Bella, and I was thinking about him.

"God, God, Jasper _don't stop_!" she cried out, fingers curling into my hair. Her hands were too small, too light, too thin, and she tugged at the curls in all the wrong way. To my horror, I felt my hard-on begin to wilt even as she began to come, soaking my face on sharp, sugary juices.

Holy fucking _fuck_. What was wrong with me?

I crawled up, flopping down beside her, hiding my face, and my shame in the crook of my elbow as her hand moved to cup my entirely soft dick. "Jasper..."

"It's the uh...wound. Takes a lot of energy to re-attach things. It's easier because you're a newborn, more energy to spare." It wasn't entirely a lie, really. The logic was sound.

"Oh," she said, with a strange little frown. I almost missed the way her brow would wrinkle when she was thinking. But then I remembered her brown eyes, and I realized I'd take the red over them any day. Bella, baby, she was mine.

I loved her.

But doubt creeped into my mind, like a cat that crawled up under the barn and died.

I'd loved Alice too.

In the beginning, anyways.

Jesus. I didn't think I could hurt Bella that way.

But with Bella it was different. She wasn't just some bright eyed pixie-girl who found me and promised me the world. I'd fallen in love with the future Alice had given me; the life she built for us. But Bella, baby, Bella was different. She was wild and fierce, and passionate about everything. She loved so deeply it hurt to feel, and there wasn't anything she wouldn't do for family. She could make me laugh, and she could put me in my place. She was perfect.

She was...

She was...

Jesus fucking fuck.

She was Peter.

With tits.

She leaned over, nuzzling her face into my shoulder, mouth pressed against my skin. I felt her tongue slide over my throat, confusion flooding her happy calm. "You...taste funny."

"Peter," I said at once, immediately wanting to bite my tongue off. "It's Peter's venom, from healing me. He's messy."

"He taste good," she murmured, licking up my neck once more. God, the things that did to me, knowing she had him on her tongue, I almost couldn't take it. Her tongue slid across mine, burning the taste of Peter into my mouth so deeply I couldn't even taste her any more.

**!#$%^**

We stumbled out of the bedroom only minutes later, half dressed and disheveled. I needed a fucking shower, needed to get the scent of Peter off my skin before it set in and stayed, like I irrationally feared it might. Bella tugged me along the hallway, mischievous and happy. Orgasms, the easiest way to calm a newborn down.

We'd made it to the stairs when they appeared on the landing, Peter wide-eyed and Hunter growling. It didn't take a genius to realize the picture we painted, all fucked out and smelling like a whore house.

I really was a fucking asshole.

**Peter**

**!#$%^&**

I hadn't told a soul Jasper was my mate, hell, I hadn't even told Hunter. But knowing it was out there was like a weight off my shoulders. Hunter'd reminded me that we may have been a lotta things, he and I, but first and foremost, we were friends.

"Come on, you stink like desperation and Jasper. You need to wash your ass, you sad, sad bastard," he said, shoving me from the tree. "You let it set on ya, you're just gonna dwell. Don't think I don't know. I'm washin' your sheets too. Don't need you mopin' in your bed all week."

I landed with a springing crouch, popping up to sling my arm around his shoulder. "Sorry I dragged your ass out here for nothin'."

"It wasn't for nothin'," he assured me. "You know I'm always around to help. You reckon we should pick up tomorrow though? This is a whole lotta excitement for a what? Two, three day old baby?"

"Yeah, yeah. Come back by tomorrow, if you want," I said with a sad, sorry sigh.

Hunter laughed, elbowing me hard enough to crack something. "Nah, I was promised a game on the big screen, I'mma hold you to the offer."

"S'gonna be awkward up in there. You should prolly' hang out in my room 'til I'm done washin'. Baby B's like to be on edge with you around. She needs to be desensitized though."

"I can hang," Hunter agreed. "But you...well, you get why I'mma have to cut you off the Hunter Cock cold turkey right?"

"Quit making me sound like a cock-whore, bitch," I grumbled. "And why?"

Hunter shrugged. "I know what Major's doing is pretty shitty, and I know the baby don't know. But I can't get up all on another man's mate, Peter. Now that I know, I just...can't."

"That sucks," I said flat out, starin' sullenly at the ground. "You suck."

"Not anymore I don't," he replied, shovin' me up the stairs. "Now, go on and get your ass in the shower. I wasn't kiddin', when I said you stink."

I laughed, ghostin' up the stairs feel a little lighter then I had. That us, until the scent of sex and Jasper smacked me in the face. There they were, looking guilty as sin. Jasper's expression woulda been comical if his mouth wasn't still wet from _her_.

"You mother _fucker_!"

The fist came outta no where, cracking Jasper square across the mouth. I saw the new skin around his jaw stretch threateningly, relaxin' back, slightly off angle. Jasper snapped it back into place, looking all the world ready to kick Hunter's ass. Hunter growled, cockin' his arm once more before huffin' hard, and forcing himself back.

Instead, he slung his hand around my waist, to my bewilderment, tuggin' me close to him. "Meet you in your room, babe," he said, nippin' my jaw before headin' for my room and slammin' my door behind him.

Jasper looked murderous, I felt sick, and Baby, she was just confused.

"What the fuck is up with every one hitting Jasper today?"

**A/N Yeah, so, that was a whole lotta' lotta' up in that chapter huh? You all seemed to like Hunter, I thought I'd keep him around a bit. So, drop me a review, tell me what you think. Again, I apologize if I reply drunk. I don't drink often, but for some reason, I love to read reviews while under the influence. **

**Also, feel free to bother me on gchat. I have a habit of spilling plot points about my story and stuff, and if that shit gets your moterboat going, then feel free to talk to me. Just...tell me who you are. And wear pants. These are rules. **


	6. Chapter 6

**Five Seconds To Death Chapter 1/? (Prologue)**

**Author : **Lifeless Lyndsey

**Pairing: **This was tough to pick. Mainly, it's JasperxBella through the whole fic, with a side of JasperxPeter, PeterxBella, JasperxPeterxBella (take your pick. it rotates)

**Warning: **M for language, lemons, slash, possible threesomes, possible gore.

**Word Count: 2.6 k**

**Beta: ** lacym3, who gives a good BJ, and by that I mean beta-job. Hopefully my beta-wife will be back soon.

**Disclaimer:** I own nearly nothing , not the characters, not the Bella, not Jasper, but maybe a little bit of the Peter.

**A/N: So... I've had horrible writers block for a whole month! It's been a whole month since I've updated! Wow! but, hopefully I'm back in the writing-saddle. This chapter isn't exceptionally long, but hopefully it gets us into the swing of things. **

_**Previously**_

_**Instead, he slung his hand around my waist, to my bewilderment, tuggin' me close to him. "Meet you in your room, babe," he said, nippin' my jaw before headin' for my room and slammin' my door behind him.**_

_**Jasper looked murderous, I felt sick, and Baby, she was just confused.**_

_**"What the fuck is up with every one hitting Jasper today?**_

**Peter**

**!#$%&**

The following day was awkward, to say the very least. To say that diamonds couldn't cut the fuckin' tension in the house would'a been better. Shit was thicker than dried cement, with no promise of gettin' better. Hunter'd done taken it up upon himself to protect my virtue or some shit, and his presence was hardly welcomed.

Baby'd done her best to try, but shit, she wasn't but a week old, and no one was askin' for miracles on that front. She'd stopped snappin' at him, and he'd stopped smashing her damn face into my dry wall. The boy loved it, the grin on his face didn't deny it, and even Baby liked the fight, and would, on occasion, provoke him. She was tense, and no one blamed her.

Jasper though, his ass was caught between a rock and a hard place. He was pissed, as well as he should have been by right, that Hunter was crawlin' into my bed when the sun came up, not that he knew what did, or didn't go on between my sheets. But the fuck of the matter, the only thing keepin' me smilin', was that he couldn't say _shit. _

I hated him for it, yeah, I did. I wanted him to stake his fuckin' claim, wanted him to sink his fuckin' teeth into me, but all the same I liked that he wouldn't. Shit was tearing him apart, and I could see the hurt on his face when I curled my arm around Hunter, when Hunter let me, cause the boy may have not been puttin' out, but he was madder en' shit at Jasper for all his fuckin' mind games. Hunter played the game just as hard as any.

Baby'd be there, so innocent and pretty, perchin' herself in Jasper's lap like she belonged, and yeah, maybe she did, in her own world, but the fact of the matter was, she was dancing on dangerous waters. She'd be there with him, and he'd like it, I'd see it, and there wasn't nothin' in the world that couldn't stop my fingers from tugging on Hunters belt loop, pullin' him to me. I didn't have to see the grin on Hunters face; the scowl on Jazz's said enough. It was tearing him up, and if that's all I could get, I was gonna milk it till I didn't hurt any more.

But even I knew, that was never gonna happen.

We trained beneath the night sky, tearing up the back yard like a battlefield. Hunter did real good, he knew the ropes. Jasper stood back, leaning against the porch-post, sneering like a pretty bitch in his goddamn Calvin Klein sweater vest and _slacks._ Sometimes I wondered if he was just trying to prove a point. Sometimes I wondered if he really thought he was better then us, his boys of Texas.

"You look like a bitch," I said, flickin' the gray argyle on his chest. "You're _wife_ still pickin' out your clothes?" He bristled, just like I knew he would, at the mention of his wife. Even Baby B growled, losing her footing and catching a fist to the mouth. Hunter sent her tumbling, but she didn't stay down-never stayed down. Baby was gonna make us all proud.

"You look like a fuckin' red neck," Jasper snapped back, his eyes lingerin' on my naked chest, buttons undone on my plaid shirt. It didn't take but five seconds till the teeth were bared, and we were both on edge.

I laughed, but it wasn't pretty, as I leaned against the railing on the porch. "Yeah, well, if we go by your word, I've been known to fuck my _brother_."

Baby B slipped again, this time freezin' up entirely. I ignored the curious look she shot me, focusing instead on the delicious little bursts of panic bleedin' out of Jasper. His eyes were wide, terrified of what I might say. He mighta not known it, but there wasn't any way I was gonna play the bitch, the tattletale. It'd come to a battle of the wills, mine against his. Naw, instead, we were gonna back each other up in corners until one of us squealed like a pig just to make it stop.

Fuck of the mater was, I'd been hurtin' like this a helluva lot longer then he'd been. He didn't even know how deep I could dig before cryin' uncle.

He thought it hurt now; I'd just barely scratched the surface.

"Yeah, that's right," I purred, stealthily moving my hand up along the post to wrap my fingers in his hair. I twisted and pulled, watched him wince. "Shut your fuckin' _mouth_."

And that was that, for now anyway. This house was full of sadistic fucks.

It wasn't long before Baby got restless and Hunter got wily, knocking her about, just a little to far for Jazz-man's likings. Didn't matter that Baby liked it, that Baby was learnin', and oh boy was she. Jasper didn't like it, and he'd always been the cock-of-the-walk. Three days didn't pass like that, till he snapped, gettin' up on Hunter, eyes flashin', teeth bared.

"What is your problem?" Hunter growled, shovin' him back.

Baby B hissed, lips curling back, and I pulled her back from the fray, tucking her back against my chest. "Watch,"I said, pressing my mouth to her hair. "Learn. Daddy Jazz wants to be Alpha, he's gotta earn it, doll."

Jasper didn't take to kindly to the man handlin'; didn't take to kindly to Hunter at all. The boy was rusty, wasn't the Major I knew, but that didn't mean he wasn't ferocious; didn't mean he wasn't feral. Ain't no matter how you dress em' up pretty, how you train em', and break em'; a dog's a dog. They all got teeth and claws.

It'd began to rain before the first blood was drawn, and it wasn't no drizzle. The sky opened up, pouring buckets, soaking the crunchy grass of the yard till they were forced to take what looked like an upright bar-brawl down town to an all out wrestle, bodies locked and straining, sprawled out in the mud.

It was a little hot, to be honest.

Jasper shoved Hunter off, knocking him back hard enough to leave a hole in the wet ground. Hunter just laughed, springing up, rain trailing down his pale skin. He ripped his shirt off - the boy liked his dramatics - and flashed me a wink just to rile Jasper up.

It worked, just a little too well, cause it wasn't a second later that Jasper was tearing into Hunter, bitin' a good ole' chunk out of his forearm. Hunter smile was washed away by the rain and mud, and he threw a punch and landed it, knocking Jasper straight up off his feet.

Baby struggled, nails biting into my forearms as I crushed her against me, mouth pressed against her ear as I hissed at her to pay attention. "Hunter's got the advantage, what should Jasper do now?" I asked, squeezing her roughly till her snarls receded.

"Get..." her eyes flickered, watching Jasper spring up into one of the few trees that grew before the broken fence, his body a nearly hidden behind the thick branches. "Get to higher ground."

"Cheater," I laughed, yanking her had back by her hair when she struggled. "Watch Baby B. Watch what he does."

Hunter prowled, circling the tree in a blur as Jasper pounced from branch to branch. He dropped down, missing Hunter _just so_, but the landing was good, and he sprung, knocking Hunter back against the trunk. The tree lurched, swaying in protest, as he pressed Hunter harder against it, forearm locked against his throat.

"He'll kick out," Baby said. "Jasper's left his legs unguarded."

She'd barely said the words when Hunter did just that, kicking Jasper hard in the shins. Jasper stumbled back, but he took Hunter with him, and once again they were back in the mud. They were fightin' dirty now, snapping and clawin'. The gay-ass sweater vest was long gone, and Jazz's under shirt was little more then a memory. All that pale skin, both their bodies were marred with fresh lines of red-black, new scars on top of old scars. They'd locked legs, forcin' each other back with nothing but their fists. Hunter'd got the one up this time, pinnin' Jazz into the mud, till he sank into it, snarling and kicking. It took all of him, every inch of Hunter, to keep em' down, and well...it looked like a party I wouldn't mind joinin'.

"_Oh_," Baby breathed, pressing back against me, and I hissed, grippin' her a little to hard as she ground her ass against my blatant and unashamed erection. She was just as hot as I was by the show, I could smell it under the scent of rain. "Peter..."

"Oh I know, Baby B. They make a real pretty picture, rippin' each other apart," I said, holding her away from me. "But this baby girl, is a real bad idea."

She whined, nails sinking into my arm, and nodded. "I...I'm sorry."

"Happens," I replied stiffly, suppressing a shudder. I'd never said I was opposed to the soft curves of a woman, and the idea of gettin' up on Jasper's girl just to prove a point, if not to get my rocks off, was not offensive in the least, but right now was not the time. Later yes, but not now, when... "Aw fuck, that ain't good."

"What?" Baby asked, turnin' in my arms to face me. "What?"

Jasper'd kicked Hunter off as easy as pie, not a shocker, all things considered. Hunter wavered, and Jasper grinned, and even I felt a little tired all-a-sudden. But Hunters answerin' smile had me worried and I shoved Baby aside just as the ground started to smoke, little puffs of wispy black. "Shit. _Shit._ Boom! Don't you dar-"

But it was to late, and that fucker never really listened to me anyways. I felt the ground shake beneath my feet, felt it sending me slidin', and I smacked hard into Jasper, shoving him back, just as Hunter jumped out of the way. The following boom was deafening, sending both our asses flying too high for my likin'. And if the explosion of earth was surprising, it was nothin' like the explosion of pain

I heard Jasper groan as we both hit ground, sinkin' into the wet dirt. Baby was on us in a minute, all soft touches and sharp worry.

"Oh Boom," I groaned, feeling for my arm. I hit something sticky and wet and Jasper hissed. "I'mma kick your ass."

"With what leg?" Hunter asked, grinning over me.

"Oh you fucker," I hissed, letting my head, which was thankfully still fuckin' attached, fall back into the mud. "What else am I missin'?" I asked, closing my eyes. Everything fuckin' hurt, I couldn't fucking tell.

"Both legs, and your left fore arm," Hunter replied, entirely unrepentant. "You took the brunt of it. Jasper's missing one leg and a hand. Petey, you know better, you fucker. You_ know _you don't jump in front of my shit. What the hell were you thinkin'?"

I growled, snapping my teeth. "I didn't want-"

S'instict, what I did. And Hunter knew it then, if he hadn't realized it before. The urge to protect my mate. I'd stepped in the line of fuckin' fire without a fuckin' thought and I hated Jasper for it. "Get my fuckin' legs, now. Baby B, find your boy's shit and get him healed."

Baby blinked, sucking in a breath. "I thought...I thought...I mean...What if...Can he..."

Hunter seemed to get what she wasn't saying, cause' when he started talking, there wasn't a smile in his voice. "It's scary, I know. But if it helps, I can only do it about once a day. Takes too much outta me. I'mma have to feed tonight."

"Right," Baby said. "Right. I'm just...I'm going to go find...yeah."

They both disappeared, and the rain kept fallin'. I couldn't hear em, but that wasn't no surprise. We'd got pretty good air, and I didn't doubt it'd take a hot minute to find our limbs and legs. I just hoped nothing left the property. They left us where we lay and I didn't have it in me to be upset about it, even if Jasper's was the last face I wanted to see. I was too damn tired, too damn sore, and too damn _fucked-up_ by what'd just happened. What I'd just done for _him_.

I felt Jasper shift, and sighed. "Thank you," he said, his voice quiet against the rain. "You didn't have to do that."

"Shut the fuck up," I rasped, screwin' my eyes shut. "Just shut the fuck up. I _hate_ you."

But I didn't and he knew it, the fucker. I didn't recoil, didn't have it in me, when I felt his fingers curls into my own, mud coated and cold. Fucker. I hated the way he fed the fuckin' fire, with shit like this, only to keep pissin' on my parade the next moment. "Peter."

"Shut up Jasper," I said, turning my head away as his thumb brushed over mind. Mind games. So many fuckin' mind games.

**Jasper**

**!#$%&**

Every single fiber of my being hurt. Goddamn that fucker, Hunter. And the fuck of the matter was it wasn't his fault, not really. I'd opened that can-of-worms when I used my power. He'd kept that shit to himself until I stepped past that fuckin' line.

God, it hurt. It _fuckin_' hurt. I hadn't forgotten why we kept that cocky fucker around; it sure as shit wasn't his pretty face. The little blast he'd shown today was nothing, the bitch was holding back. I'd seen him take off heads before, seen him take out entire contingents. It left him bone-ass tired, too weak to defend himself, and if he weren't worth his salt, he'da been dead a long ass time ago. But the bitch was good at what he did, and didn't that burn?

He'da gotten me good if it weren't for Peter. They'da been huntin' for my dick till the sun came up. As it were, I'd no doubt they'd be a while till they found all our parts, and I was stuck here with him and a head full of thoughts I didn't want.

The bastard, Peter, such a little shit. How could I be mad at him when he'd pretty much taken a fucking bullet for me? He didn't even blink to do it, didn't even think on it. I wanted so much to hate him for it, hate him for loving me like he did. God. It _hurt_ cause' I was hurting him, and I knew it, but what could I do?

Hunter wasn't quiet when he fought, just little whispers, little barbs, and he'd got me good, because he _knew_. _'That's your boy, Major'_, he'd said, before he punched me in the face.

_'He tastes so good.' _He did, I thought. He does. Cause I knew, didn't I? I knew.

Hunter had taken that, had seen me falter, and ran with it. _'Look at them,'_ he said, as I pinned him to the tree._ 'You like em' firey, don't you? They're a lot alike aren't they? Bella's just a substitute for Peter without a dick, huh? Look at em'. Don't they look pretty together? Bet they'd get along just fine.'_

And I'd seen him, Peter, with his arm wrapped around Bella, mouth pressed against her ear, and she wasn't fighting. God, she liked it, and he liked it, and they were just alike. It fuckin' scared me. Cause' where did I fit there? I was a bastard and a liar and they were both too fuckin' good for me.

**A/N So...yeah. *runs away* **


	7. Chapter 7

**Five Seconds To Death Chapter **7/?

**Author** : Lifeless Lyndsey

**Pairing**: This was tough to pick. Mainly, it's JasperxBella through the whole fic, with a side of JasperxPeter, (take your pick. it rotates)

**Warning**: M for language, lemons, slash, possible threesomes, possible gore.

**Word** **Count**: Just north of 2k

**Beta**: Thats a good question. My beta is out at the moment, but the darling lacym3 stepped up and had at it, bless her heart.

**Disclaimer**: I own nearly nothing , not the characters, not the Bella, not Jasper, but maybe a little bit of the Peter.

**A/N: **So this is a bit later then I intended, but I think I'm finally over my writers block so hopefully I'll be back in the swing of things. Warning. This chapter is angsty and short.

_**Previous**_

_And I'd seen him, Peter, with his arm wrapped around Bella, mouth pressed against her ear, and she wasn't fighting. God, she liked it, and he liked it, and they were just alike. It fuckin' scared me. Cause' where did I fit there? I was a bastard and a liar and they were both too fuckin' good for me._

**Jasper**

**!#$%&**

"Sometimes I wish I could drown."

Peter's voice was quiet, and I turned my head to look at him, all stone-faced and angry. His eyes were closed, rain drops clinging to his dark lashes, sliding down the round bend of his cheeks to collect at the corners of his mouth.

I said nothing. What was there to say? My fingers were still curled into his; he wasn't pulling away, and I knew that he wouldn't. And I _used_ that.

"This is one of those times," he muttered, more to himself than to me this time. I squeezed his hand in silent reply, and he sighed. "You can't keep doin' this to me."

"I don't know how not to," I replied, inwardly beseeching him to open his fucking eyes and look at me. Something.

"Leave," Peter said quietly. "You're good at that."

It stung, and he knew it. Peter was the master of cheap-shots. "I can't leave Bella."

He snorted, but his hand stayed in mine, like that simple point of contact was all that kept us anchored here in this strange moment. "Yeah, you can. You've done it before. You turn your back, and walk away. Simple."

"It isn't simple!" I snapped, yanking his arm. I wanted him to look at me, but he didn't. Probably because he knew I wanted it. "It's not."

"Looked simple from my point," he replied, lashes fluttering on his cheek. "What makes it easier to leave me then her? I don't get it."

"Peter-"

"No," he stopped me short, his voice sharp in the quiet rain. "I don't want to hear your lies, Major. I...no."

"How do you know I'll lie?" I asked, and ignored the way he raised one wet brow. "I just...I did miss you, you know?"

"And that makes it okay?" The lack of bite made the retort worse. There was nothing more pitiful sounding then a resigned Peter Whitlock. Peter never gave up. "Just 'cause you missed me? Do you know what I went through when you up and ran, Jasper? Do you know? You left me. You were all I ever knew, and you left me on a _whim_."

We were having the talk. The talk we'd put off for sixty years, or rather, I'd put off. "It wasn't a whim," I replied, quiet and defensive. The rain poured down a little hard, and I wondered if it knew I was lying.

He shrugged in the mud, bare shoulders sliding through the slop. I couldn't see his other arm, but I saw the wince on his face. "Then what was it?" He asked, eyes still closed. His mouth was pulled into a taught line, jaw locked and tight. He looked both defeated and ready to fight all at once.

"It was a lot of things, Peter," I replied, closing my own eyes against the drops. "I mean...well. You know what...what feeding from humans did to me. I know you understood, because you're you, and...you've always understood me. When she told me that there was another way... I couldn't think of anything but the relief."

"I...woulda, you know," he replied gruffly.

"Would have what?"

"Did the animal thing," he frowned. "I did for a while, you know. Did your wife tell you that? I did real good too, all on my own. For...well, about two decades. Twenty years, only slipped up twice."

My mind reeled, trying to envision a golden eyes Peter. I didn't doubt the bastard did it, Peter could do anything. "Why?"

When he laughed it was cold, as cold as the rain anyway. "I'd...well, I'd hoped... Fuck. I thought you might come back. I wanted you to know what I'd give up for you. That it wouldn'ta mattered to me one way or the other. And I waited...God, it felt like forever. The first decade passed like molasses in the winter. Slow as fuck. And by the time the second un' had come and gone, I just...I didn't want to hope any more. You weren't comin' back. By then, Maria's minions had gone and started pickin' off our crew, so I said fuck it, drained six people in one night, and started slaughtering what shit vampires Maria had left. I didn't go back, wasn't any point. I figured if you weren't gonna come and back us up on that, you weren't comin' at all."

"I didn't know," I protested, but it was weak, and sad, and tired.

Peter shook his head, hair plastered to his forehead. "What could I do, Jasper? S'not like we kept in touch. You think I was gonna come runnin' and askin' for help? And besides, I didn't know where you were."

"I would have come," I said seriously. "You know that."

"Yeah. You would have come for _them_. And then what? Would you have stayed? No," he said with a finality I wasn't about to argue with. He was right at any rate, I wouldn't have. He opened his eyes to stare up into the darkness, a raindrop splashing across his bright red corneas.

"You didn't just leave because she offered you an alternative. I mean, you could have come home and asked me. We could have done it together, like everything else. It was always was us, and then you went and took that from me. You got yourself a new 'us', and I didn't have shit but myself and I'm just not..." He let loose a heavy sigh. "I'm just not nothing without you Jasper, ain't never been. So, you wanna lie and tell me you up and left me with a stranger just 'cause she saw it, you do that. But it is what it is, Whitlock- it's a lie. You left me because what she was givin' you was easy. You took the cowards way out, and look what it got you. A fat lotta nothin', and a baby."

"It wasn't easy!" I snapped, turning my face away. "God, it wasn't easy, Peter. They...they loved me, Carlisle and Esme, they did. But they didn't get it. They didn't get what it's like to...to do the things we've done. God, Carlisle, Rose and Alice ain't never drank from a human. They ain't _never_. They don't know."

"But you stayed," Peter said without inflection. "Why'd you stay?"

"Because..."

He turned to me then, and I could feel his eyes trace a path along my profile. "Because it was easy? It was easy to be the son, and the brother? To have that fresh start where no one knows you, and you don't even have to be a vampire," Peter asked. "You left me to be human, Jasper. To be a fuckin' sweater-vest wearing Stepford Son."

"So what if I did? Is that so bad?" I didn't know if it was. "I never felt human. I felt like my skin didn't fit every day I walked that damn school."

"But you stayed," he muttered, looking away.

What could I say?

He was right.

**Peter**

**!#$%&**

I can't reckon why I kept my hand in his. Cept' that when you're starvin', you'll beg for scraps. We was talkin' in circles, not gettin' anywhere, but the way I figured, it was good for him to hear it. Hear himself say it, at any rate.

"Do you ever hate me for it?" I found myself askin', and I wanted to yank them words right back into my mouth. 'Cause I didn't want to ask, and I certainly didn't want him to go answerin'.

"What?" Jasper lifted his head, propping himself up on his good elbow. "What the fuck for?"

"Outta all them people, you got me," I said at length, throwing out a sad little laugh that caught in my throat and sounded like it mighta been chokin' me. It mighta been. "All them ladies could a been your mate; Maria, Charlotte, Alice, even Baby B. And you got me."

I could feel the tension in his hand as he froze, mouth agape.

"Peter, I never...I don't..." He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, no doubt smelling nothin' but rain. "I just...you know, so much in my life's been hard. Even when I was human. And then the war, and then the Vampire war, and fuckin' Maria, and all that blood. But then there was you, and ... I just thought... Well. I thought that if one thing in my life could be easy, it shoulda been love. Love's _suppose_ to be easy. It was easy with Alice. It's...it's gonna be alright with Bella, cause' she loves me, and I love her, and everything else can fuck off. But with you...well. Lovin' you s'never gonna be easy, is it. We're to bullheaded for that. Every thing's a fuckin' fight and I don't know if I can keep fightin'. I don't know if I have it in me. "

Something in me hurt, and I tore my hand outta his so fast I felt my arm socket protest. Love, he said. Said he loved me.

Hadn't heard that in a long time, and I didn't wanna hear it now. Not like this. "You can't say that shit. _God. _You can't just..._no_." If he couldn't hear it in my voice, he sure as fuck could feel it. I hurt, God, I hurt. Like all them years come crashin' down; the pain was unbearable, and I felt like a couldn't breath, even though I didn't need to.

I felt suffocated under it.

And then suddenly I was. Crushed under the handicapped weight of one Jasper fuckin' Whitlock-Cullen-Hale-Whatever. His left hand, the only one he had at the moment, brought my right up over my head, and I didn't have another arm to argue with, now did I? He pinned his right leg between my decidedly unattractive bloody, severed stumps. Didn't matter we were banged up, didn't matter that I was mad. He pinned me in place, and I couldn't do a damned thing about it without my legs and only one damned arm.

He bumped my chin with his, and we were to damned close. I turned away, but it didn't matter, cause' he was right there, in my face, all soggy golden curls and sharp eyes.

"No matter what I done, Peter,"

"You only love me 'cause you got to!" I snapped, spitting in his face. "You won't choose me over nothin', Jasper. I ain't nothin' to you but a sad scrap of past. You don't get to tell me that you love me. I can't be your _girl_, Jasper. I can't be what you want."

He crushed his forehead to mine, and we both know we coulda got caught like this, that we might'n of heard'em on the forest line, but they sure as fuck could see us if they were there.

"I love you," he growled, and what didn't that do to me? Cause this? This right here was my Jasper, the bastard that didn't walk away from me. This was Major Whitlock, the right kinda bastard, the man I missed. He was all snarls and teeth, none a that soft baby shit. For a hot minute I thought I saw the man I use to know.

But it was the wrong kinda bastard that kissed me, 'cause Jasper Whitlock, he didn't exist. This Jasper was a married man, and not just to me. This was Baby's boy. I pushed back as he pushed forward, tearing my face away.

"Peter wha-"

"No," I growled, ripping my arm free from his grasp and punchin' him hard in the shoulder. "No. No! You...you _cannot_ do this to me, you fuckin' bastard. You...you can't just kiss me when ever you want and tell me you fucking love me! Do you realize how sick that is? Do you know what it does to me! Goddamn it! I hate you! I fuckin' _hate_ you. I _hate_ you so much, you stupid, stupid bastard!"

There are times I'm glad that I'm a vampire, and I can't cry.

Jasper fell to the mud beside me with a wet squelch, wastin' no time throwing his arm over my shoulders and haulin' me against him. He tucked my head beneath his chin like I wasn't bigger'n him, and held me like he wasn't a mother fuckin' bastard and I wasn't me.

And I let em' cause I'm weak like that.

"Don't act like this changes anything," I said against his chest. "Cause I reckon we both know it doesn't."

His silence was answer enough.


	8. Chapter 8

**Title**: Five Seconds To Death Chapter 8

**Author**: Lifelesslyndsey

**Genre**: Romance/Angst/Humor

**Pairing**: Peter/Bella

**Word** **Count** : 1,900

**Disclaimer** : Not, I says the fly. Not me says the flea. Not mine says the swine, or so I say, okay?

**Beta: Lacym3, who never keeps you waitin' on your southern angsty triangle of looooove.**

**A/N So I realize it's been a while since I've updated this story, and I'm sorry about that. I just hit a pretty crucial chapter in Hit and Run and it's been consuming me. Plus it's been attack of the plot bunnies in my head and I have been writing about EVERYTHING lately. Seriously, cyborgs, werewolves, slash SPNxHP crossovers. I'm a dirty girl. **

**Previously: **

_Jasper fell to the mud beside me with a wet squelch, wastin' no time throwing his arm over my shoulders and haulin' me against him. He tucked my head beneath his chin like I wasn't bigger'n him, and held me like he wasn't a mother fuckin' bastard and I wasn't me._

_And I let em' cause I'm weak like that._

_"Don't act like this changes anything," I said against his chest. "Cause I reckon we both know it doesn't."_

_His silence was answer enough._

Current:

**Peter**

We both flopped back into our respective places in the mud when we heard them stirrin' at the forest's edge. They came bearin' gifts of arms and legs, and somethin' else entirely.

They reeked of sex.

Hunter smirked, droppin' Jasper's leg onto his stomach with a thunk. Jasper had propped himself up on his elbows in the dirt, his mouth hangin' open wide enough to let the flies in. I didn't blame the man, I wasn't much different.

"I think I'm going to head out. I've taught Bella all I can," Hunter said loftily, takin' a moment to run his fingers through my hair. He brushed his finger tips across my lips, and fuck if I couldn't taste her there. "Gimme a call some time, Petey-boy. You got yourself a handful with that one," he finished, jerkin' his thumb towards Baby B.

Baby stepped forward, kneeling between Jasper n' me, at our feet, adding what limbs she held to the tiny pile. "I'll just...help you, then," she said quietly, and Jasper's mouth finally snapped close, if only for a moment.

"We got this," he said gruffly. "You...you just go...go take a shower. You're filthy."

"I can-"

"Go take a fuckin' shower."

She nodded sharply, rising from her crouch. I could see that she was shakin', her auburn hair clinging to her cheeks. Oh Hunter, that bastard. I had to give em' points for style. He'd given Jasper the big 'fuck you' by stickin' it to the girl.

He knew we knew.

She knew we knew.

We knew she knew we knew.

Where did we go from here?

"Does she know she ain't your mate Jasper?" I asked, handing him his hand. He shoved it in place and licked at his wrist with careful strokes of his tongue.

"Never came up," he replied quietly, graspin' my bicep, forcing my arm into place. I raised my elbow up, face level, and he began coatin' the wound with his own venom, workin' it in with fingers and tongue.

"Jasper," I said slowly, tearin' my eyes away from his mouth, cause' this wasn't the time for that. "Does she think she's your mate?"

He looked up from where he was pressin' his thumb against the inside of my elbow. "I didn't tell her she was," he said evenly. "Didn't say she was, didn't say she wasn't."

I grabbed his leg and he pulled him self closer, nudging up the torn fabric of his pants as I worked the leg in place. "What does she know?" Jasper said nothin', and I looked up at him, spitting a mouthful of burning silver fluid into my palm and slapping it hard against his thigh. "Jasper?"

"We...look. She ain't nothin' but a week old," he muttered. "I hadn't gotten around to it. I was gonna explain it."

"When?" I asked, pressing the heel of my hand hard into his thigh, roughly massaging my venom in. "You wasn't gonna say shit. Don' you lie to me, boy. I know. You was all set to let her think she was your mate. This shits gonna eat her up, you know? How guilty she's gonna feel? How confused?"

"She shouldn'ta done it," Jasper replied angrily, grabbin' up my leg.

I winced as he jammed it into the socket, yankin' up the torn pant leg. "Why? She ain't got nothin' to go by. She doesn't know no better."

"Mate or not," Jasper snapped. "She's mine."

I snarled as he dug his venom coated fingers into my half healed thigh. "What? Like me? Gotta lotta nerve claiming shit you don't deserve. What if Hunter was her mate, what would you do then, Whitlock?"

"He's not," Jasper snapped, grabbing my other leg. "He ain't nobody."

"They can't all be nobodies," I hissed, nails scorin' the mud as he worked the other leg into the socket. "One day, you just might-"

He twisted the healing tissue just enough to make me growl and shut my fucking pie-hole. "You think I don't know that?" He growled. "You think I haven't thought about it? Fuck, Petey, you don't _know_."

"What don't I know? Do I not know how much it's gonna fuckin' hurt to watch her leave you?" I replied, the rain carryin' my screams away. "I hope if fucking burns!"

"I _love_ her," he growled, fistin' his hand in my shirt. We were soaked to the bone, glarin' daggers and growlin'. "Why isn't that enough? Just because you're my mate, doesn't mean I love her any less. If I wasn't your mate, do you think you wouldn't love me?"

I didn't like his flippant fuckin' way of throwing love, my own especially, in my face, but the bastard had a point. "I would'a fallen in love with you any ways, I reckon," I said, and it didn't need to be said that I'd have learned to hate him though. I'd give anything to hate him.

"I love her," he whispered. "Being yours, that doesn't change what I feel for her."

"Mine," I echoed, staring at him in disbelief. "Jasper Whitlock, you ain't mine."

He fell back into the mud and closed his eyes, rain pouring down his face. "I am," he said evenly. "But that's not _all_ I am. I love her, I can love her, and nothin' else should matter."

All them pretty words, I thought, they didn't mean nothin'.

"You reckon you would'a fallen in love with me?" I asked, watchin' rain drops paint clean trails on his muddied skin. "You reckon it wouldn't have _mattered_?"

"Peter, I-"

I looked away, feelin' somethin' that wasn't limbs tearin' at me. "If you ever loved me at all, it was only 'cause you had to. God almighty, Jasper, sometimes I think your punishin' me for the hand God dealt to you."

I felt an all to familiar hand wrap itself in mine, and cause' I was weak, I didn't pull away. I let myself be drawn into his clutches yet again. "Peter, you're amazing," he breathed. "You're...God. You're everything I wanna be. You're _fearless_, you always have been. And they're ain't a thing in this world you wouldn't give up for the good'a some one else. You're fearless, and giving, and just...amazing. I'd give anything to be like you, be half the man you are, 'cause I'm a fuck-up, the way I am. I'm a coward, and a liar, and I don't know how to be anything else."

"I love you anyways," I found myself saying, felt the words tear themselves outta my heartz and my mind. "Think she will?"

"I don't deserve her," Jasper replied. "I don't deserve any of you. Well, maybe I deserved Alice. She did turn out to be a bit of a bitch, didn't she? But even she was better'n me."

"I ain't got a lick of pity in me for you boy," I replied, more solemn then I ought'a been. "You just can't help but keep burnin' yourself. You set yourself up for this shit. What are you gonna do about it now? What are you gonna do?"

"I ain't gonna do nothing,"Jasper said, all that Texas heat leachin' into his anger and turnin' that pretty boy mouth of his back to it's Southern twang. "I ain't gonna do shit. There ain't nothing to be done about it. I'm just gonna march in there and...and..."

"Pretend it never happened?" I asked, eyes narrowed. "Your good at that."

The snap was damn near audible as he pushed me down, pinning me into the mud. He was angry now, angry at me, at Baby B, at Hunter, but was me who was here pushin', pushin' him further till he just couldn't take it.

I knew what I was doin', and I did it anyway.

Might'a been sick, but if makin' him angry, if bustin' up that pretty calm was all I got, I'd take it.

"No," he growled, pushing the heel of his palm into my collar bone. "Oh no. I'mma _fuck_ her. I'mma fuck her right there in your house. Fuck her hard, loud, make her scream. You're gonna hear it, and your gonna like it, aren't you Peter? Aren't you? You're sick little fucker, always have been," he hissed, pressing his thigh into my hardening cock. "I'm gonna fuck her, and you're gonna feel it, every fuckin' push, every thrust, every single-"

"You don't need to fuck her for me to feel it," I cut him off, letting myself fall limp into the mud with a smile. "Slut like her? She's probably spread 'em for me easy, all I gotta do is ask. Hell, maybe I should. Some one should be payin' rent around here, and you ain't been puttin' out for any'a us."

I felt his fist connect with my jaw, but I didn't care. I could feel his anger, my anger, echoin', spiralin', swallowin' us both up. "Don't call her that."

"What? A slut?" I sneered. "Was she this loose as a human? You already fuck 'er? She smelled like a virgin but I could'a been wrong. Was your brother tappin' that? I mean if he was, then I guess you don't mind sloppy secon-"

Another fist to the face, but it didn't matter, I'd hit a nerve and I was gonna work it till one of us broke. "We could double team her? I'm fine with fuckin' her mouth, it's a mighty pretty mouth, and you can take that cunt of hers." I could feel him, hard against my hip. The Bastard liked the thought, I should'a known. "I mean, I guess you should get first dibs, since she's _yours._ Sloppy seconds has to be better then sloppy thirds."

"Stop it," he snarled, shaking me where I lay. "Shut up!"

"What? You don't think she'd be into that? I think she'd be real into that. We can just sidle on up there, press up against her. She looks like a girl who could handle both of us. Just like Char, huh? Remember Char, Jasper? Remember how bendy that little body was, God, we twisted that bitch like a pretze-"

"Bella is not Char!" Jasper growled, fingers biting into my arms. "She's not."

"Because I don't get to kill her if she gets too comfortable between us? Because I don't get to burn her if she gets in my way? I should'a killed Alice the first fuckin' second I saw her, just like I should smoke that baby upstai-"

A loud crash burst from the house and I smiled, sighin', high on my own sick vindication. "Your girl's busting up my house, Jazz. I think I should get a blow job for that or somethin'."

"I hate you," Jasper growled. "I hate you so much."

I hooked a hand loose around his neck and tugged him forward; the boy let himself be led to my mouth, kissed me without one qualm. "You keep tellin' yourself that."

When he pulled back, his eyes were narrowed, but his expression broken, and I realized I'd hit the nail on the head. He jumped off me like I burnt him, flying toward the house where Baby B was throwin' some sorta newborn shit-fit. I laid there, letting the rain paint trails on my muddy skin, thinkin' about how Jasper was bi-polar, and wondered if I could talk Hunter into a hand-job.

**A/N Sorry it's so short, and clearly a mess of bi-polar angst. I just wanted to get something out and this was what I wrote, for who knows what reason. Angst. Angst. Angst. Porn. **


	9. Chapter 9

**Title**: Five Seconds To Death Chapter

**Author**: Lifelesslyndsey

**Genre**: Romance/Angst/Humor

**Pairing**: Peter/Bella

**Word** **Count** : 1000ish

**Disclaimer** : Not, I says the fly. Not me says the flea. Not mine says the swine, or so I say, okay?

**Beta: MsEerieChastain, who keep's me sated with her BJ's. Beta Jobs, you perverts. **

**A/N **Hello, all. It's been a while. This story is kind of kicking me in the ballsack and I just...didn't know how to progress. This chapter, though, I can tell you it wasn't how I orginally planned to progress, but I'm just happy to be writing again. Can't say when I'll update again, but know that I'm not abandoning this fic. It might be prudent to read the chapter before this again, if you haven't.

Jasper

Seething. That girl was seething at the top of the staircase, damn near foaming at the mouth. I watched her shudder and flinch as I flew up the stairs, soaking her in my own anger, lettin' her know what was to come.

"Oh, Baby," I growled, crowding against her. The hall was dim, little light pouring in through the window casting shadows on her snarling face.

"Don't call me that," she snapped. "Jesus, Jasper-"

I slapped a hand over her mouth and felt her bare her teeth against my palm. "I can smell him all over you," I said bluntly. "All up in you. Did you think I wouldn't fucking know? Did you think I wouldn't fucking care?"

Tearing her mouth away from, she snarled. "Like I can taste him in your mouth when I kiss you, Jasper? What do you have to say about that?"

"Eye for an eye, Bella?" I asked, backing her up against the wall. "Are those the rules? If that's the case, I think you jumped the gun, fucking Hunter."

"If that's the case, wouldn't I be burning?" she sneered back. "Just like...what was her name? Charlotte?"

"Don't talk about that," I spat, crushing her against the cream-colored plaster. "You don't know shit about that."

She licked her lips, pushing her hips against me. "You don't want to fuck me, you lying sack of shit," she said, curling her fingers into the collar of my shirt. "Makes you sick, smelling him on me, doesn't it? Makes you fucking sick. You don't want to fuck me," she repeated, sliding her hand down my chest to cup my dick. It twitched in her hand and I narrowed my gaze. "This ain't for me. This is for him. You think I want to fuck you like this? Is that what you think of when you touch me, Jazz? Are you thinking of him?"

God. Yes. Sometimes. No.

I swallowed, sinking my fingers into her hair so hard she winced. "I think you get off on it," I growled, instead, skin twitching, ready to pounce. "I can feel it, _Baby_. You like it. Was Petey right, darlin'? You wanna spread em' for the both of us? He wants that mouth of yours, sugar. I know the feeling, that mouth of yours got me in trouble in the first place."

She snarled, jerking back against the wall. "I don't know. You want to fuck me while I'm still wet with _him_? He made me scream, Jasper, it hurt so good. Tore me right open. I bled and everything."

"Peter was right," I growled. "Bastard's always right. You are a slut."

"Not so much," she said with a sharp grin. "If you didn't have your head so far up Peter's ass, maybe you might have seen how bad I wanted you. _Needed_ you. Hunter said newborns get like that, want to fuck like that, but you just left me hanging, huh? Hunter just gave me what I asked for, what you wouldn't. Don't act so fucking hurt, Jasper. You didn't want to fuck me, wouldn't even give me the time of day. Every time I fucking turn around you're with him. What is he to you? He ain't your fucking brother, or is the South really as inbred as they say?"

I shuddered, pressing my forehead against the wall above her shoulder. "God," I said, breathing in the scent of her hair. "You're just like him. No wonder I fucking love you so bad it hurts."

"Love me like you love him. How's that supposed to make me feel? I don't want to be you're side-dish, I'm fucking better than that." Bit of tension left her shoulders anyway, when I let her feel how much I loved her, so deep it ached. She sank her hands into my back pockets, and sighed. "What did you bring me into, Jasper Whitlock? What kind of mess have you made?"

"That's a big question," I muttered, melting against her. "I really fucked shit up, huh? God, what did I do to you?"

"Loved me in all the wrong ways, right from the beginning. I wasn't innocent though, now was I?" She replied. "But you do love me, I know that. I love you too, you know?"

"I know," I said, breathing out roughly. I wiped my thumb over her mouth, and she licked it. "Fuck if that ain't enough though."

"You love him."

"Does it matter?" I replied, looking away. I didn't know where Peter was, but I wouldn't have been surprised if the dick was lurking nearby. I'd admitted enough to him today to leave me hurting for a long time. The locks had been struck, demons out, and I really didn't fucking care for it. "Doesn't change how I feel about you, baby doll."

Leaning against the wall, she moved here head to look up at me. "Would he really kill me?"

"No," I sighed. "Peter...he's a better man than me. He won't hurt you, no matter what shit I pulled. I'm lucky for it; I can't live without you."

She nodded, looking out the round window at the end of the second floor landing. "I'm sorry, I guess, for what I did with Hunter. I just...you're always with Peter. I let it get to me. I was just so fucking worked up, and he said it would help and I...I wanted to hurt you. It's fucked up, but I wanted to fucking hurt you. What the fuck is wrong with us?"

"Forget it," I said quietly, cupping my hand in hers. "I deserve a hell of a lot worse than that, I guess."

"Why?" she replied, linking our fingers, and tugging me to the window. "What did you do that was so wrong?"

I looked at her, wondering what she heard and what she knew. Too risky to ask, I figured, so I just let myself be thankful for the blessing that was her ignorance. "A lotta things," I shrugged. "Some worse than others. Some the worst of all. Don't ask me today, baby. If you're really sorry, you won't ask me today."

"I'm really sorry," she murmured, looking through the green tinted glass. Peter was seated on the fence, one leg kicked up, balanced against the post, and the other one left hanging. His fucking hat was tilted, leaving him looking like a come-to-life Marlboro man, and also a stupid douche.

Bella laughed, tapping a finger tip against the glass. She'd managed to master most of her control and I couldn't have been prouder. "He is kind of a douche, isn't he?"

I blanched, blinking. "Jesus Christ."

"It's not...very clear," she said, turning to look at me, nose wrinkled up as she shrugged at me. "Kind of like AM radio. It's all mixed. I can't hear Peter though... But uh..."

"Another fucking mind reader," I hissed, pinching my nose. "Guess that's why Edward couldn't read your mind. It was too much like his own."

"Hunter said it'll get stronger," she replied, and the familiarity of his name grated on me like sandpaper on a baby's ass. "Won't be long and there won't be any secrets left. Don't let me find out too much without you telling me, Jasper. It's too much like finding out a lie."

I swallowed, closing my eyes against her pleading look. It didn't help much; I could still feel all the solemn desperation pouring off her. "There's a lot to tell, Bella," I murmured, opening my eyes to her. "A lot of it I ain't ready to say, and you ain't ready to hear, but God, you have to know. You have to know that no matter what's what, I love you. I fucking love you, so much, baby, so much I'd give it all up for you. Gave it all up for you. God, I fucking love you, but I'm afraid it won't even fucking matter."

"Jasper, slow down," she murmured moving her hand to cup my jaw. I moved my face into it, burning my mouth in her palm to keep myself from talking. "Come on, Jazz. You're scaring me."

"Touchin'," Peter said from the staircase, leaning against the rail, his arms crossed over his chest, the buttons of his ugly plaid shirt undone. "Really, this is just so fuckin' touchin'. Careful now, Baby B. This is the part where he up'n leaves ya."

"I won't leave her," I snarled, pulling Bella against me like a shield. "Believe it or not, Peter, some dog's ain't too old to learn their lessons."

"Is that what I am now?" Peter asked, leaning forward, his eyes on Bella as she stared between us. "Funny that, I thought I was somethin' else entirely."

"A fucking dick?" I asked, reeling back. "God, Peter, just...give it a fucking rest, for one fucking minute."

His grin turned feral, as he tipped his hat. "Oh get your panties outta yer ass, Major. I ain't sayin' anything. After all, a gentleman never fucks and tells." He spun on the worn-out heel of his boots, leaving behind a mess with just his words alone.

"Did you fuck him?" Bella asked, wide-eyed. "Jesus Christ, and you made me feel bad about Hunter?"

"I didn't fuck him!" I snapped, scrubbing my hands over my face. "Christ."

"Then why the hell would he say that, Jasper?" she asked, cocking her head to look at me. "Fucking hell. No more lies."

"Look, fuck. It was a long ass time ago. Before you, or the Cullens, or even Alice. Peter and I were...we were..."

"You were what?" she asked her eyes narrowing and I spit out a word before she could find the real truth.

"Together." In love. Mates. A fucking mess. "We were together. For a real long time, we were together."

There was nothing in her that told me she knew the truth, not even an ounce of surprise or suspicion lingering behind the cloud of confusion and anger. "Then what?" she asked, brow furrowed. "What happened to you two?"


	10. Chapter 10

**Five Seconds To Death Chapte**r 10

**Author **: Lifeless Lyndsey

**Pairing:** This was tough to pick. Mainly, it's JasperxBella through the whole fic, with a side of JasperxPeter, PeterxBella, JasperxPeterxBella (take your pick. it rotates) Some PeterxOC, but thats finished this chapter.

**Warning: **M for language, lemons, slash, possible threesomes, possible gore.

**Word Count:** 5.5k! A biggen' for me.

**Beta:** Hootysgirl is filling for this chapter

**Disclaimer:** I own nearly nothing , not the characters, not the Bella, not Jasper, but maybe a little bit of the Peter.

**A/N:** So it's been a while, yes. This story has just not been coming to me, but today BAM, outta no where I was like "I KNOW WHERE THIS IS GOING NOW" and I do. So I bring you a much bigger chapter. It's pretty jumpy, perspective wise, so bare with me. There is some memory-type things in here, where Jasper and Peter are recollecting, so just remember, Maria isn't actually there. Hopefully I wrote it clearly enough. I really do think I'll be writing for this more often, if it keeps coming to me like it did today. Just know that I won't abandon it. Never that.

**Previously**

_"Look, fuck. It was a long ass time ago, before you, the Cullens, or even Alice. Peter and I were...we were..."_

_"You were what?" she asked her eyes narrowing and I spit out a word before she could find the real truth._

_"Together." In love. Mates. A fucking mess. "We were together. For a real long time, we were together."_

_There was nothing in her that told me she knew the truth, not even an ounce of surprise or suspicion lingering behind the cloud of confusion and anger. "Then what?" she asked, brow furrowed. "What happened to you two?_

**And now...**

**JASPER**

"Peter came to our compound human," I began the tale I really did not want to get into, ever, with anyone. "He was a mouthy shit then, too. I could taste the fear all over him, and then...well, I wasn't the man I am today, Bella. I was a monster, hand crafted by the devil herself."

"Maria," Bella breathed, eyes lashes fluttering. "You changed him didn't you?"

"I did," I nodded shortly. "But...not for a long time. See...Peter was given to me for good behavior. Like a fucking box of chocolates to be savored, but eventually eaten." I still remembered Maria's bright eyed look when she'd brought him in, hog tied and gagged.

"I can't...I don't think. This is hard for me Bella," I rasped, leaning back against the wall with my eyes closed.

"Look at me, and...think it then," she offered. "Mostly, what I see is pictures anyway. Pictures and..._feelings_. Sometimes thoughts, but mostly I see things inside my head how others see things in theirs. When you were looking at Peter outside, I saw how _you_ saw him."

"Bella I don't know..." I began, because what could she see? There was so much. But...there was so little too. So very little. It had never been said that we were mated, but it was clear that we were in love. We knew, and then Maria, but it didn't have to come that far, she didn't have to see that.

"Jasper, I need to know that I can trust you. That you won't lie to me. Give me this, okay? I...I won't pry. Just show me...what you want me to know, only _show_ me. More than words."

"Okay."

She grabbed my face, focusing her eyes on mine as I gave her everything I had.

Unlike the memories of my human years, these memories would be forever burned in me. There were some things you just didn't forget, and some things you _made_ sure you didn't. These were them.

These were my defining years.

'_Mijo,'_she purred, hand fluttering across my shoulder as she circled me, her finger nails tearing it with intent. '_Look what I have brought you.'_I hadn't given Peter a second glance; he wasn't the first gift she'd brought.

But this was different, the glint in her eyes telling me so, as clearly as her mischievous air. '_I see you looking at the boys sometimes, Mijo.'_

I sucked in a breath, sharp and startled. My secret was my sin. Played like the winning hand at poker. '_I apologize.'_

Her laugh still sounded like bells to me, as she shook her pretty head and ran a rough hand through Peter's hair._'Oh no, mijo, you misunderstand. I do not care where you take your pleasures. For what greater pleasure is there then our blood lust, the same pleasure that damns us? No there is no greater pleasure, nor sin, than that. This lust for your own, it is such a small thing in the grander scheme. He is yours, pretty boy, and I want you to have him.'_

I frowned, feeling nothing from Peter, but hearing his heart spike sharply._'I would rather not, Maria,'_I argued, as gently as one argued with Maria. _'I am not comfortable...'_

_'Oh but see, he is like you!'_She exclaimed, clapping her hands together. _'A rare breed you pair are, I have learned, but he likes boys. I saw him looking, I could taste his lust. And he's so pretty, my Major. Don't you want him?'_

He was beautiful, by human standards, with wide blue eyes and a mouth made for sins only sailors spoke of. I'd like him, but that didn't mean I wanted him. It was the last thing I wanted, really. It was the only thing I had yet to succumb too, the last of my lines I'd yet to cross. I was a man, a man to be swayed by the soft curves of a woman. No doubt that I was, for women had always had their appeal, but for a man... the hardness, the sharp edges, the durability and just the thought of calloused fingers...

_'You want him,'_she hissed at me, mouth curved up into a wicked smile. _"Make him yours, my Major. Take him. Break him."_She made it an order, giving me no choice but to obey.

In the end, I did manage two out of three.

Where he had started as a reluctant order, he quickly changed into a challenge. He was mortal yes, soft and human, but seemingly unbreakable. I felt nothing for him, but he felt things, surely, as he stared at me with burning eyes and a terrible smile on his face. _"I don't like boys,"_ he said, the first word out of his mouth. _"I like men."_

I sucked in a breath, tasting him in it. For all that I dominated on the battle field; my young face had always served to irritate me. In the beginning, I looked harmless; a pretty adornment at Maria's side. But the scars grew one by one, marking me for the monster I was. He couldn't see them, he didn't know. To him, I was a boy on the cusp of manhood, where I would forever be. He was clearly older than me, with stubble on his chin, and infant wrinkles at his eyes.

However that wasn't what had me hissing. It was what he said, how he said it, so nonchalant and honest. "I like men." That was more than I could say, and he was just a powerless human. In that moment, I did want him, wanted him on his knees, and I wanted to break him._'You'll find it unwise to judge a man by his face around here,'_ I growled, watching sweat rise on his brow.

His blue eyes went wider, but he never wavered, looking up from where he was still tied to the ground. _'You'll never break me.'_

_'Oh but I think I'll enjoy trying.'_

For a long time, I kept him human, a secret which no one besides Maria, Peter and I really knew. It seemed irrelevant, but it wasn't. I had found my match in a human, a mortal man who bowed to no one. For weeks, months maybe because what is time to the timeless, I toyed with him. Really it was he toying with me, pushing me further than where my lines lay comfortably. He never asked what we were, for it was obvious. Really, he asked very little at all.

At first, I took my pleasure in scaring him, watching that delicious sweat rise up against his skin. His heart would hammer against his chest. I would watch him like that, covered in fresh blood, with my eyes ruby bright. Feeding always left me a little maniacal, back when the fear was heady and undeniably arousing.

It did not take long for Peter to catch onto to my games. I came to him when I was burning at my hottest, freshly fed and aroused. It was then that he came to play back, in a game I couldn't name. I would find him where I left him, manacled to a shoddy bed in chambers specifically appointed to me by Maria herself.

At first, he would freeze in fear, but soon my presence became common to him. I would walk in to find him sprawled out across his cot, shirtless and filthy and grinning like a cat. So very Peter. I remember the first time I found him; hand in his britches without a care in his world. I couldn't fathom even the idea of touching him like that, but he was beautiful, all sprawled out and languid. He came while I watched, pretty jets of white painting his tan skin. I remember, oh god, I remember wanting to lick a trail right through it.

I had high tailed it out of my rooms faster than he could blink. I was hard, and ashamed. I was a man, no matter what Maria promised, it didn't feel right to me. It felt like a sin. I picked a fight in the newborns quarters and killed ten before Maria herself took it out of my pretty, sparkling hide.

Break him, she had ordered, but he was breaking me and she was watching, cackling all the while. I returned to him the next day, his food in hand, a bowl of fruit I'd taken from a village freshly raided. As I remembered, fruit like this was always a commodity. My mother had made strawberry jam in glass jars that caught the sun much like my teeth did now.

I handed him the bowl, turning even as he took it. His voice scratched when he spoke, he had little reason to use it. "_Stay_."

I didn't know then what I knew now, so when I froze at the door, I was confused. Turning on my heel, I eyed him. _'Why should I?'_

_'Because you want to, don't you ever do what you want?'_He asked, biting into one of the red berries. His teeth were very straight, if they weren't all too white. His smile was dimpled and impish and dangerous, I thought.

I snarled, stalking forward till I was towering over him. He didn't move, simply looked up at me, and bit into another berry, warm breath fanning over my crotch, I'd come to stand so close. _'What do you know? What do you care? You're a slave.'_

He gave me a funny look; a slant of the brow and a quirk of his lips, as he looked around his comfortable little living area. There were books, fresh blankets, and a new bowl of water and a clean towel at the end of the bed on the little desk I'd found and brought. There was even a paper wrapped pack of Bull Durham smoking tobacco, though I'd never let him have his own matches. I would confess to no one that the cigarettes had been more for me. I found that I greatly enjoyed watching him smoke them.

His eyes caught mine as he smiled at me, sweeping up his smokes. He shook one loose, holding it for me to light. The small box of matches shook loudly in my pocket where I kept them, and I struck one quickly, watching his lungs contract as he inhaled. _'I'm not a slave,'_ he said, blowing a set of smoke rings my way. The smoke was bitter, but I could smell the scent of his mouth in it, the scent of him beneath the dryness. _'I'm a pet. A well...cared for pet. You dote on me, Major.'_

I looked away, ashamed. He should have been done by now. Done and broke, and dead. It was a wonder why Maria let me by so easily, but I did believe that my conundrum amused her greatly. I had yet to take him, yet to make him really mine. He was right, he was a pet, and certainly dotted upon. _'Were you a good pet, you would do as I tell you and shut your mouth.'_

His grin turned wicked, in a way a slaves never would, as he stubbed out his cigarette on my hand! I growled, but he didn't flinch, clearly trusting in a way that made my skin crawl._ 'Maybe,'_ he said, picking up another strawberry. It painted his lips red as he bit into it, almost like an illusion, a pretty illusion, of blood._'Maybe you should tell me to do something worth my while.'_

He licked his lips and I watched, feeling myself harden in my pants. He knew it, and played his dangerous games none the less. Something, Lord only know what it could have been, but something broke in me, watching him sit there, practically between my legs, looking up at me with his _mouth_ like that, wet and wanting.

I had always had a thing for mouths.

_'Touch yourself.'_

The words were tore out of me in a growl, and I took not a step back as I made the order, simply watched him sink his hands into his trousers, and free his manhood. It was thick, and red with blood, the darkened head peeking out of his fisted hand. It was by far the most erotic thing I had ever seen and I felt my hands clench and unclench before I was sinking them into his hair.

_'Go on,'_I ordered, and watched his hand stroke down then up, fingers tinted pink with berry-juice. I could smell his come, smell his sweat, but I could never, ever smell him. Even so, what I could smell made me growl with that forbidden want. Oh, I _wanted_. He watched me, eyes locked on mine; the entire time till I could no longer take it, crushing him forward till his mouth was pressed against me through my britches.

His breath fanned across my hard cock, hot and wet as he panted, shoulder working faster and faster, wrists twisting and flicking as he worked himself, and me, further and further, and further till I felt him come, spraying hard across my knees.

_'Lemme touch you,'_ he whispered, right against my cock, come soaked hand pushing up my shirt. He smeared himself against my stomach, rubbing it into my impermeable flesh._ 'Come on, lemme touch you, Major.'_

_'No,' _I muttered, tearing myself away from him. His hand reached out to me, and that was what broke me.

It was all uphill, or downhill depending on how you spun it, from there. I gave in to him because he asked and because I wanted it. I might have made him mine, might have took him but I never broke him, not nearly as much as he broke me. Things between us were intense, always so intense. We burned, together mostly, and sometimes each other and I fell so deeply in love with him I didn't even notice.

He'd been with me a year as a human, as a plaything, a pet, when Maria put her foot down. I'd had my fun, and she'd let it be, but I was becoming distracted.

'Kill him', she ordered coldly with a smile still etched in her face. He was there still manacled to his bed, where he'd spent a year as my pet.

**PETER**

I couldn't stand there and listen to him beg me to lie and say we were nothin'. Couldn't do it. Couldn't say it, no more, not again. I ran like a bitch yeah, but maybe that was better. All I could think of now was the way he'd pressed me into the fuckin' mud, the way he'd kissed me once again, only to fuck off and pretend I was shit. Who the fuck knew? Maybe he wasn't pretendin' anymore. It used to be so easy; so damn easy. What the fuck had happened?

_'Lemme touch you,'_ I remember whispering, the outline of Jaspers dick pressed into my cheek. I remember the cool of his body pressed to me, fingers digging into my hair as delicately as he could. He always fell on the harder edge of pain, but I embraced it. I welcomed it. I wanted it. _'Come on, lemme touch you, Major.'_Just let me feel.

_'No,'_ he murmured, pullin' himself away. His hand curved over my jaw, I remember that, the way he'd always touch my fuckin' mouth, just brush a thumb across my lips and growl and stomp away like he'd done wrong. What a fucking mess. He was hurtin', I could tell, and I didn't like that I'd done that, that I'd made him hurt like that. Some days, I didn't really understand.

I reached for him, outta reflex more than much else, but he paused, frozen in place where my hand had caught his fancy military trousers. The come on my hands looked less bright against the pearl sheen of his stomach, and I rubbed it in, fingers tippin' into his navel. He growled, that low dangerous snarl I had come to know as home. I thumbed the button, tuggin' the laces till they were loose around his waist, showing off that sharp 'v' of his hips.

He called me a slave, but that was shit. He doted on me like a lover, mighty like he was courtin' me and I wondered, all the time I wondered if he was just as fascinated with me as I was him. I didn't know what they were, but I had an idea. All that blood, and no heartbeat, no nothin'. They were monsters yeah, straight outta the worst of nightmares. But he was more, I thought, though what did I know?

Because he was a monster, just like all the rest, but I could sometimes see that little glint in those red eyes, that fear and it was heady. He feared me, like I feared him, and who knows, I might'a been his worst nightmare. All I knew is that I never knew a man like him, but I _wanted_. I played him like a fiddle some days I found myself terrified of the look on his face as he licked his lips and stared at me, lockin' me in that gaze, his mouth still painted red with blood. He fascinated me. Some days though, he was so calm and collected, while other days he just lost his shit. There was just so damn much to him I did not know, and I had always been a damn nosy fucker.

That Mexican bitch thought it was right funny the way her Major seemed to fall over himself for me, maybe not in the most noticeable ways but I noticed. I noticed the way he was always there, the way he stared, the way he snarled when anyone else took to sniffin' at me. I was his, even I knew that, and I'd never been nobodies. I reckon my momma didn't even call me her own, and my daddy sure didn't. I was the last son of a whole lot more, an afterthought of sorts, over looked and no doubt a well-known burden. Wasn't so bad; I was a sneaky shit and that sure as shit served me good.

But I'd been invisible for so long in my world, it was nice to just be seen.

I mighta been a captive but I was taken care of. I'd lived worse lives in my twenty-something years and I wasn't going to complain. I'd seen what they did to those who complained around there, and I knew, oh I knew that my time would come too, but mostly I liked being human; being his human.

I kissed his stomach, sticky with my own damn come, and he lost his shit, pushing me hard against the bed. So young, he looked so damn young, but I knew better than to be fooled by the pretty faces any more. He was older then I but maybe not wiser for it. Crushing me against the bed, he ground against me as green as a teen, and twice as desperate, but he felt damn good in the Texas heat.

_'Shhhhh,'_I remember murmuring, right against his neck as he growled and whimpered and ran his hands up my ribs, fingers skimming too soft now. He was scared. _'Take it easy.'_

He licked his lips and watched my heart hammer in my chest. He did that sometime, like he could hear it, and he probably could. 'I shouldn't do this. This is wrong.'

_'Why's that?'_I asked, licking a slow line right behind his ear. He purred like a kitten, a sweet little rumble right in his chest and I wondered for all his power who was in charge here.

_'Cause I'm a man,'_he replied, nosing up my jaw. His hands were wild, touching all that they could, and for all that he was a cold summabitch, I was burning. Raw with need, raw with him, and I wanted more.

Turnin' his face, cause' he let me, I brushed my own thumb across his lip and let myself get lost for a moment in those ruby reds. _'Oh I reckon you're a helluva lot more than that.'_

He fucked me then, all eager and intense. Broke two ribs and made me come three times. When I woke in the morning, in the night, whenever it was, he was looking at me with a whole new glint. Possessive, heated, just as raw as I'd been. _'I'll never break you,'_ he murmured, licking the skin of my wrist. It made my heart pound, to see those teeth like that, and he grinned when my heart raced.

_'I hope not.'_

Hope in vain, as they say.

Fuck this, I thought, hauling my ass up off the dirt where I had planted it in the middle of the fuckin' forest. I needed...somethin'. I didn't know what but I _needed_.

**JASPER**

"What happened?" Bella asked, tearing me outta my shared thoughts. "You turned him?"

I nodded slowly, wondering how she could fucking miss it, fucking miss that burning, yearning, heart breaking love because fuck me I fucking loved him but maybe that hadn't come till later, till...

"He had attributes I thought would commute well into vampire. My inability to alter his moods, and his lack of scent to be sure. Maria saw through me, my reason was as clear of glass. I didn't want to lose him. But...well, it didn't matter because I did anyway."

Bella's hand linked into mine, breaking my damn heart. Here I was pouring my damn soul to my woman about my...my man. "He forgot you? When you turned him?"

Nodding, I looked away, leaning against Peter's ugly ass wall paper. "Yes, and I hadn't expected any less. I only...wanted him to live. Once he was turned, he was treated like any other newborn. There was no other way to deal with him. He learned quickly and he was invaluable. He rose in rank almost faster than I had. He managed to make it past the first year without being burned. He turned out to have a knack for turning newborns without killing them, something Maria valued almost above all else."

She pulled me close, her face reflected in the window of Peter's second story landing. "So what happened? You had to have reconnected, eventually." It was all concern and curiosity, pouring off of her in drowning waves, though I could barely fucking feel it compared to the tsunami that was my guilt. I was such a _dick_. A hypocritical dick, too.

"Charlotte happened," I said darkly. It was not one my fondest memories, as she could probably tell judging by the sudden tensing of her posture. "She was brought in, as filler mostly. She didn't have any gifts, but she was damn fucking feisty. Peter flocked to her, almost immediately. He always did like the rowdier newborns. He saw something in them, I guess, something that made them fight so hard."

"They fell in love, then?" She asked, so soft and gentle, but it still startled a growl out of me.

"They fucked," I said sharply. "And he cared for her. That was just the way Peter was. He could have loved her yes, but...I didn't like it. I wasn't...how I am today, Bella, you have to understand that. I saw her...with him, and he was mine. I'd made him mine. I reminded him."

"How?" The question was expected, gentle but curious, and she turned my face to look at her as I spoke, picking out the memory from my mind like a peach from a tree.

"I fucked him," I snarled, tensing in her arms. "I took him to my rooms, I was one of the few who had proper rooms, and I fucked him and he liked it and he remembered. We didn't leave for two days, and then Maria showed up, grinning like a cat. She knew..." My words shut down as sharply as I hoped my mind did.

"Knew what?"

"That I loved him." It was honest, if not the answer. "It amused her, I suppose that I had let myself be weakened but she never questioned it."

"Jasper, what happened with Charlotte?"

"She tried to convince him to leave me." I was ashamed, but it was true. She had died because she had tried to take him away from me, even if I knew he'd never ever leave, not like I did. I killed her, fucking killed her, watched her burn and liked it.

Bella held me, crushed me in her tiny arms, till I felt suffocated and good. She knew what I needed, forgiveness and maybe a kick in the ass. "So...where does Alice come in?"

"You know how Peter and I ran away?" I said, and she did, nodding and waving me on. "Well, I didn't do so good...afterward. It was easy to forget that I was killing when it was so damn commonplace, but when...when we had to pace ourselves I was forced to let myself feel and it hurt, it fucking hurt. Peter did what he could, picking out hunts for the worst of human beings and that helped, helped a hell of a lot. But I was still left feeling more than I had in a very long time, and I remembered how I had been, when I was human, wanting men when I knew I shouldn't. Those feelings came back, but Peter worked me through them. He showed me that Maria had been right about one thing, in the grand scheme of things, being with a man was nothing. But then she showed up and well...I took the easier way."

She blinked at me, clearly horrified. "You just...left him, for her, because it was easier to be straight? It didn't have anything to being a vegetarian!"

"Well, yeah it did! Thats...Bella, being with humans has changed who I am for the better, I swear. I think more clearly...I can-"

"I seriously fucking doubt that if you brought me here after all those goddamn years after abandoning him for a woman you're not even with any more! How...how could you be so fucking intensive! He loved you, you goddamn prick and you knew that, I could see it. You knew how much he fucking loved you and you...you ran right back to him as soon as you left Alice." She finished, her anger suddenly melting off to a dangerous calm. "As soon as you knew you were done with Alice, you...ran right to him. Wow. What am I, besides fucking luggage?"

"No, I love you!" I blurted, grabbing her by the forearms. She was right, she was so right, and it hurt because she was going to fucking leave me and I was going to deserve it. It was going to hurt, and I was going to deserve all of it.

She peeled herself out of my arms, glaring coldly as she held her breath and collected her calm. "You go find him; right now. You go find him and you bring him home, or I swear to God I will never forgive you, Jasper Whitlock. He has got to be so hurt right now. Why are you doing this to him? Hot and cold? I know you kissed him, I tasted it on you. How can you keep giving him hope?"

"But you-"

"I think we both know where I fall in the line of things," she said quietly. "But I know you love me. And I know you love him. I can feel it, both of it. It doesn't change anything, you're still...in so much shit. But he belongs here; this is his home. He shouldn't feel so damn unwelcome."

**PETER**

"Goddamn! Hunter how could you do that?" I wasn't really mad, and he knew it. I was more mad that...well to be honest, I reckon I was spittin' cause I'd been interrupted, as bad as it was. I'd come to him, like I always did, cause the bitch was my friend when all else went to shit. And I didn't have it in me to take my ass home.

He had the balls to laugh at me, fuckin' hootin' and hollarin' like a loon. "How the hell couldn't I? She was fucking beggin' for it. If the Major hadn't had his dick so far up your pretty ass he could have been sticking it to her like she needed."

"He didn't...we haven't! You know we haven't you lil' shit!" I snarled at him, stalkin' forward through the livin' room of his little rented house. He was not quite a nomad, but still without roots. "You ain't gotta get all up in my shit. I thought you wanted out?"

He rolled his eyes at me, wavin' me off like my complaints were nothin'. "Oh come on Petey, admit it, you loved that I did that, that I got what he wanted. That cherry's mine, baby, and she was a screamer. Hate to know what y'all were doing to not hear it."

We sure as fuck weren't in any mind to listen. I shook my head at him, huffing. "You think it's fine and dandy to fuck her, boy you better bend the fuck over because I _need_ it," I said, suprisin' us both. I was all fuckin' uppity from Jaspers shit and Hunter hadn't ever denied me before. My boner might notta been for him, but like it mattered. I _needed_ to get off, and a lil' blow job wasn't gonna cut it.

"Dude," he said petulantly, frownin' at me. "I told you I can't-"

"You can fuck her, you can fuck me, cause' either way you're getting up on the Majors ass," I said bluntly, almost embarrassed I'd so easily labeled myself as such, but it wasn't no secret around these part, save for ignorant little Baby B. "I ain't beggin', I'm tellin'. You want it rough, that's fine with me, but we're gonna fuck, and that's final."

"You're doing this to get back at him," Hunter replied, but his tone was casual and his pants were undone. "Cause you know that shit'll hurt. First her, then you. Goddamn, you want him to kill me?"

"No, I want you to drop your fucking jeans, and bend the fuck over cause' I need to get my dick in somethin' _tonight,_ and baby I don't want your mouth." I wasn't gonna be the only one getting' ass. No doubt Major was already balls deep in her, reaffirmin' his claim, or whatever. I was itchin' and I was twitchin' and I was downright fuckin' pissed. But I was also damn hard.

And he knew it, Hunter always did, the boy could read me like a goddamn book. "Make me," he said, grinning madly.

And then it was on.

I chased him like a scared little rabbit, rushin' out the back door behind him to cut through the thick woods. He could run, oh yeah, but the boy couldn't hide, not from me. I felt the ground tremble beneath me, and jumped as he let it explode, hurling dirt and rocks all around. It cracked, opening like a crater, and he laughed wildly.

"That all you got, baby?" I called out, as I lunged for him. He hadn't heard me, no one ever did, and I took him down with one simple pounce; my hand already tearing at his jeans. He was hard and he smelled like her, but that didn't turn me off, not in the least. Girl smelled good, and I knew it would kill Jasper for me to come home smellin' like the pair of em. I just wanted to hurt him.

I pressed im' face down in the mud, and he let me, wiggling when I yanked on his jeans. I was gonna fuck em' dry, just like that, rough and hard. Make it a punishment, for what I didn't know. I got my jeans down, knees slippin' on the wet ground as I aligned myself, fuckin' against his pert little ass cheeks once or twice.

It hit me like a smack in the fuckin' face, his scent, all the fuck around me, and I felt Hunter tense, and for good damn reason. He was about to get caught fuckin' around with the Majors mate, after fuckin' around with the Majors...side dish. "Oh Jesus Christ, I'm gonna die," I heard em say, scramblin' out from under me like a wet cat.

Jasper rumbled, plowing into me with all he had. His hands were rough, knocking me all to shit as he hauled me up, back pressed against his chest. "Mine," he snarled, glarin' fuckin lasers at Hunter. "Stop touching _mine_."

And it scared me a lil', I will admit, the way his voice had lost any level of humanity. This was Whitlock of the worst of dreams. His hands ran up and down my chest the same way they had that first night I'd gotten his ass in my bed, too soft, but still lethal. "Mine."

Hunter opened his mouth to speak, to apologize, but I shook my head sharply, warning him off. "Run. Just...run. Far, far away."

And the bitch did.

Searing pain burst through me as Jasper sank his teeth into my neck, right where he'd bitten me that first time and that damn pain...it consumed me like a fire, like our damn fire all rekindled, and it hurt but it felt so fucking good.

A/N Bella flipped her fuckin' shit, didn't she! And so did Jasper. More on just what the fuck he was thinking next chapter! It's good to be back!


	11. Chapter 11

**Five Seconds To Death Chapte**r 11

**Author **: Lifeless Lyndsey

**Pairing:** This was tough to pick. Mainly, it's JasperxBella through the whole fic, with a side of JasperxPeter, PeterxBella, JasperxPeterxBella (take your pick, it rotates) Some PeterxOC, but that's finished this chapter.

**Warning: **M for language, lemons, slash, possible threesomes, possible gore.

**Word Count:** Just north of 4k

**Beta:** MsEerieChastain

**Disclaimer:** I own nearly nothing; not the characters, not the Bella, not Jasper, but maybe a little bit of the Peter.

**PETER**

"Mine," Jasper all but snarled, sinking his teeth into the thick tendons of my neck, marking me like a fucking animal. He was out to prove something, to himself or to me. Don't know why the boy bothered; he'd already done and ruined me for anyone else.

It was a mess'a motion after that. I reckon we were both too damn far gone in the feel of it to really care past the moment. We tore at each other, ripping strips from our clothes, from our goddamn flesh. Naked in the mud, my whole damn world fell the fuck apart. Couldn't stop him, didn't want to, 'cause Jasper'd done gotten under my skin, and I was sick with 'em, not of 'em.

I wanted it all back, all the shit he'd done stole right out from under my two feet when he high-tailed his pretty ass on outta my life. I wanted anything he'd fuckin' give me. He'd turned me into a goddamn masochist cause I'd let him hurt me any damn time he wanted if only he'd keep makin' me feel this _good_ afterward.

When the fucker finally kissed me, I knew I was done. He spread me out like a slut, cause' there might'a been a time way-back-when, when I called the shots but it was gone. Jasper'd gone and found my one weakness; him. And he used it, played me like the devil's own golden fuckin' fiddle. He'd been pushin' at all my buttons since he'd stepped on my porch and there just weren't many left for pushin'.

Oh, but he was fuckin' pushin'.

His fingers were creepin', sinking inches and miles down the waist of my open jeans. I was hard and it had not a goddamn thing to do with Hunter. It never did. It was him, no matter what he believed, always him. Always fuckin' him. No one could wreck me like Jasper Whitlock. No one could undo me like him; untie all my strings like a fuckin' shoe, just to kick me aside.

All that shy boy hesitance was gone as he curled his hand around my cock, squeezing it brutally. "This ain't for him," he murmured, scratching his teeth down my throat. He was tearing me up, and licking away the wounds; I'd smell like him for weeks at this rate. "You givin' my toys away, Petey? Won't earn you any friends on the playground, boy."

_Boy._

I moaned, like a bitch, pushin' up into his hand and he liked that, his growls melting away like butter til' he was purrin' in my ear. "Such a fuckin' slut, Peter. Huh? Such a fuckin' slut," he repeated, pinning me back and pressin' me down to keep my hips from jerkin'. The sounds that tore from me were pitiful, shameful, but _hot damn_ I wanted him all over me. I wanted him all up in me. "My slut. Mine."

"Yours," I choked again, as he tore his hand away, pushin' me roughly to my knees. I sunk down in the mud, and the rain kept pourin'. Rainiest day in Texas I ever did see. Like a babe to a damn tit, it was instinct, the way I pressed my face against the front of his hips, nuzzlin' away. He ran his hands through my hair, tugging roughly as he made me look at him.

"Touch yourself."

Oh Goddamn, I near about died all over.

A yank on my hair brought me back, as he pressed my face back against his cock, growlin'. I grabbed my dick, but it just wasn't the same as his hand. Groaning deep, I jerked it, my other hand moving up to push at his shirt as I moved to mouth at his stomach. He whimpered when I licked his navel, pushin' me back into the mud.

My legs were sprawled, dick firm against my stomach, half-trapped in my pants, and he dropped down between my legs, just lookin' all over me, gold eyes bright and lost. He crawled over me, back arched like a goddamn cat as his hand slid beneath my neck, half hauling me up against him. "Never," he snarled, licking a line straight up my cheek, "again."

Goddamn, but it was glorious. He pushed my last button, tearing into me in the last of ways, and it was all I could do to hold on and not break into a million tiny pieces. But it felt so damn good to have him here; in me, on me, all the fuck around me. Fightin' and fuckin'; them's what we were good at. It's all we ever really knew.

Face to face he fucked me over while he lined up to just fuck me. That added torment, lookin' up at his face, well it just about did me in. 'Cause it was feral, nothin' but possessive rage as his lips curled back and his hands cupped my hips pulling me to him. But the worst, oh goddamn the worst of it was when he faltered, body stutterin' as he gasped out a question in a word, in a name; in my name.

"Peter."

All that breath I never needed was knocked straight outta me as I grasped onto him like a fuckin' limpet, fingers clinging, shamefully desperate. 'Cause I knew what would happen next, what he would say and if he said it, it would be _real_. He would make it real and then what? What could I do if he made it real, if he said it and meant it? I'd pretended for a long time, lied to myself, and it didn't make it easy, but it made it bearable. If he said it, what would I do then? When I couldn't deny it? When he looked me in the eye like he was and said the two words that would serve as more of an admission then anything else? "Please..."

Five seconds passed that shameful plea, five seconds where he just looked at me, looked _through_ me and probably saw the broken fucking mess of self-denial I'd become.

Five seconds to death.

Five seconds for him to kill me again.

'Cause if I let him do this, and I'd be a fool to say I wasn't done already, he was gonna be the death of me.

"Don't," I breathed, but it was too damn late. The look in his eye was enough to scream it, but I heard it all the same.

Fuckin' me, lovin' me, he said it and I _shattered_.

"I'm sorry."

**JASPER**

I was gone.

The moment I saw Hunter, I was just gone. Bastard still smelled like my Bella, and it killed me dead, 'cause that wasn't the reason I was do damn gone.

He was touching mine.

A switch was flipped; any Cullen left in me died in a fire of rage. I heard him whimper, heard Peter tell him to run. I heard it all, but it didn't matter shit, 'cause I had mine. Right in my arms, I had mine. But he didn't smell like mine no more, and that was just a damn shame. He smelled like him, and even her, just a little, right on his mouth where Hunter'd kissed her and then kissed him and I didn't like it, not one fucking bit.

So I bit him; he was mine.

His flesh, that little strip of scarred, milky skin right at his throat, it gave like silk to scissors. My spot, my mark, the very first of so damn many. I knew it hurt, knew it would burn like a damn bitch and I wanted it to. I wanted Mine to know that he was mine. It was selfish and wrong but in that moment, it didn't fucking matter because the boy was _mine_.

I just needed to touch him, feel his skin on my skin. Working my arm up under his, I slid my hand down his chest, fingers grating over every mark and scar, brushing past his navel to push at his jeans. They were open, dick hard and peeking from between the undone zipper.

I took his cock in hand, it was mine after all, and squeezed it roughly, tearing a little whimper straight outta his mouth, that mouth of mine. "This ain't for him," I reminded him, nipping up his throat. Rain drops washed away the scent of Hunter, leaving him a clean slate for licking. My teeth sliced thin lines though his skin like paper-cuts, and I licked at them too, letting my venom sink inside. I wanted him to smell like me, inside and out. I wanted it to stay with him, remind him cruelly. So cruelly, but I couldn't help it.

"You giving my toys away, Petey?" I asked, palming the head of his dick. He humped into my hand, fingers already clenching against my arms where he'd grabbed me back. "That won't earn you any friends on the playground, boy." My boy. Mine. He thrusted up against me hard, whining from the back of his throat and it was goddamn beautiful. "Such a fucking slut, Peter," I growled, feeling my eyelashes shutter as I soaked up his lust, vague as it was behind a layer of whatever it was that kept me from feeling him. All that love-lust, it was just as fucking beautiful as him when I could feel it, when he let me. It crashed down on me as he let go, struggling where I'd pinned him against my own hips, ass grinding against my own cock. "My slut. _Mine_."

He'd barely choked out the word 'yours' as I pushed him to his knees, pushing and pulling till he was facing me. Without a goddamn word or order, he pressed his face up against my hips, nosing down the aching line of my cock through my pants. He was so fucking pretty, all mussed up and muddy. Tugging on his hair, I forced him to look up, choking on my demand even as I spit it out. He tore me up in ways he couldn't ever know. "Touch yourself."

He sucked in a sharp breath, lust spiking hard enough to make my own knees shake. So he remembered; remembered that first night of ours when he got beneath my skin, and stayed. His eyes were wide, staring up at me and I couldn't fucking look at him like that, I couldn't. I pressed his mouth back against my cock, his venom soaking the poly-cotton blend of my khakis as he mouthed at it blindly, his hand reaching for his own.

It was jerky, uncoordinated even. He mouthed past my dick, pushing at my shirt to lick at my stomach. It was so much like before; I could almost smell the cigarette smoke and burning scent of vampire in the air, filtered by little more than the four walls of the prison I kept him in. And I had thought things were far from simple _then_. His tongue dipped inside my navel, teeth scraping gently across the bottom of my stomach and it was almost more than I could take, shuddering growls tearing up through my throat. I needed him. I needed him to be mine again and I was a fool to think I could ever believe otherwise.

I pushed him back, sending him sprawling through the thick mud. He looked all sorts of fucked up, spread out real pretty, dick flat against his stomach. I fell between his thighs, lookin' him up and down. I was a fool; a fool torn. I was a liar and a fool, I thought, crawling up his lean body. Sliding a hand under his neck, I pulled him against me, forehead pressed against his. "Never," I growled, pausing only to lick a line up his cheek, his wet lashes tickling against my lips, "again."

I got him naked in all the wrong ways, tearing at him as he tore at me. He was mindless, and I was mindless, but I just needed, oh God, I _needed_. Needed him to just...let me. Let me _have_, and he would, because he was Peter and Peter had never failed me, not ever, not once. He'd let me take and take and take; he was infallible, unbreakable. He was the one constant I'd known. The sun would set, the moon would rise, and Peter would never break.

I never needed anyone like I needed him.

I needed him to take it, let me fuck him and fuck him up. I pushed into him, watching his mouth curl up into a snarl. All that feral beauty, it just fucking called to me. It was mine, he was mine, and no matter what he would be. No matter what I did to him, he'd be mine. And I knew it, and I used it, and I couldn't fucking stop. I didn't deserve him, but he was mine, and there was a lesson there I was sure I'd never fully learn. He told me I couldn't' break him, but I'd never stop trying. Why couldn't I stop? "Peter," I breathed, frozen over him, in him, but I meant to say '_I'm sorry'_.

He grabbed me, lashes fluttering as he closed his eyes tightly, a broken little sob tearing up out of his chest. "Please," he cried, head falling back. He was crying, and I didn't think he even knew.  
Five seconds passed that shameful plea, five seconds where he just looked at me, looked through me. "Don't."

Please don't.

But I couldn't stop.

"_I'm sorry._"

He came just like that, crying out or maybe just crying, taking me with him even as he pushed me off him, falling back against the ground. He threw his arms over his eyes and growled when I dared to near him. "No," he breathed. "No, no, no, no."

"I'm sorry," I said again, choking on the trickling waves of pain seeping out of Peter's filter. It was crushing, even as soft and vague as it was. "I'm sorry."

"Shut up," he breathed out, arms flopping dead at his sides. His eyes were still closed, body streaked with mud. "Congratulations. I think she'd be proud. Did you enjoy it as much as you thought you would?"

"Who?" I asked, pushing up to my knees. I stared down at him, where he laid lifelessly across the ground. "Who would be proud?"

"Maria," he replied, and everything went numb inside him. "_Make him yours. Take him. Break him_.' I knew you were a persistent bastard but shit, who knew you'd still be trying? She'd be proud of you, boy. How's it feel? Did you enjoy it, Jasper? Did you enjoy it as much as you thought you would?"

"Peter-" He cut me off with a hysterical laugh, looking up from where he lay.

"How's it feel? How's it feel to finally break me?" he asked, the expression on his face broken and raw. "Go," he choked, dropping his head back. "Just go."

I went.

XxXxX

Bella was waiting for me on the porch when I returned, her face closing a little bit more with every step closer I took. I'd only just hit the bottom step when she spoke. "Eye for an eye, Jasper?" She shook her head, looking me over. I was half naked, filthy, and probably torn in places where Peter'd ripped his nails through my skin. Shoving a towel at me, her expression hardened. "I'm not sure this counts as even. There was no love between Hunter and I."

I growled at that, a tiny snarl slipping past my lips. "I found them together," I admitted.

Bella barked out a laugh and shoved me hard, tripping me down the stairs. "You find Peter with Hunter and your response is to fuck him?"

"I-"

Her smile was sad, and her eyes were cold as she shook her head. "He fucks Hunter, and your response is to fuck him, Jasper," she said slowly, biting her lip. "I fuck Hunter and what? I get the cold shoulder. I get sent to my room like a naughty child-"

"Bella," I cut her off in alarm. "I love you, you know I love you."

"I do," she said seriously. "I know you love me and how much you love me and God knows I love you too. But I don't get you, Jasper. I don't get you at all. What the hell is wrong with you? How could you do that to him?"

"I-what?" I asked stupidly, derailed by her unexpected train of thought.

"He loves you," she breathed. "He really loves you. You told me that yourself. And what do you do? You fuck him. And then you come home to me?"

"I...he sent me away."

Her laugh turned incredulous. "You sound surprised! I told you to go bring him home, not go fuck him! What the hell is wrong with you! You know how he feels! You know it because you feel it too!"

"I love _you_!" I snapped, watching her eyes flash with anger.

"You love us both," she said quietly. "You love us _wrong._ Is this love, Jasper? I don't remember it how it felt before. Is this what love feels like? Because it fucking sucks. How can you say that you love us, and pull this shit? I could understand if you went out and fucked a random nobody, Jasper, I could. But you don't get to fuck with Peter like that. It isn't fair. Haven't you done enough?"

She had no idea what I'd done. "I told him I was sorry."

"I'm sure that made everything better," she seethed, shaking her head at me. She backtracked through the house, returning with a pair of jeans in hand. I winced as she brushed past me on the stairs, slamming her shoulder into mine.

"Where are you going?" I asked, reaching for her, but she was already half way gone. "Bella?"

**Peter**

I heard her even before I smelled her, and I made a mental note to work with her on that if Jasper wasn't packing their shit to leave right at that moment. "Baby," I called out, eyes still closed.

"Hi Peter," she murmured, making her noisy way across the muddy clearing. She sank down in the mud beside me, legs outstretched parallel to mine. "You're a naked hot mess."

"Oh Baby B," I laughed, only slightly hallow. "In these parts we say_'you look about as pretty as hammered dog shit.'_"

"Gross," she laughed with me, but her voice was still quiet. "You really are torn up, Peter. Do you want help with...um. With that?" She asked, fingers dancing around the edges of Jasper's bite.

"Nah, it'll heal," I replied with an exaggerated smile. It would. It always did. "This is just what you look like post-Jasper."

"I wouldn't know," she replied dryly, taking one of my hands into both of hers. "I've never been _post-Jasper._"

"Eh, sorry," I offered with a weak grin. "'Bout all of it, I guess. I mean if you're talkin' proverbially, you got fucked just about as hard as I did. Then again, I know Hunter, know what that boy can do; I'm half surprised you ain't walking with a limp, girl."

"Oh fuck you Peter," Baby snapped back, smile on her face. "So is that what this was? I fucked your boyfriend so you fucked mine?"

She didn't say mate and it didn't go unnoticed, but I wasn't about to go getting presumptuous. I didn't know what she knew, and I wasn't about to lay it all out and about without the facts. "Hunter mighta been my boy but he wasn't my boyfriend, peaches." I stretched in the mud, twisting to look up at her. "And if I recall correctly, and I most certainly do, I wasn't the one doing the fuckin' when it came to your boy, Baby B. You really think Jasper'd bottom?"

"How would I know?" Baby asked, shruggin' her narrow shoulders. "The way he's been acting lately, I kind of wondered what the hell crawled up his ass. Geez, Peter, I don't even know what to say to you."

"Ain't nothin' to be said baby girl, you ain't done wrong by me," I assured her, squeezing her hand in mine.

She looked down at me, head pressed against her shoulder. "I sent him out here, you know. He told me about you. About how you guys met and how he left you for Alice." So she didn't know. That bastard had got off easy tellin' her everything but that little fact. She wouldn't be here coddlin' up on me if she knew. "I told him to go and find you and bring you back and what did he do? He fucked with you some more. I can't believe him, how he can know..._know_ how you feel and still do this to you."

I laughed, 'cause the girl could not possibly know the depth of it and yet she had a pretty damn good grasp. It made me want to be honest, and the truth spilled outta me like moonshine, clear and burnin'. "He does it cause' I let him, Baby. 'Cause I ain't strong enough, never been strong enough to tell that boy no."

To my surprise, she gathered me into those slender arms of hers, pressin' my face right against her chest. "How can you let him hurt you like this?" she asked, as if she knew what _this_ was. This, the indefinable depths of pain; the constant ebb and flow of ache that filled me like a flooded river, muddied edges and endless currents. "You love him," she breathed, clutching on to me. "God. You still love him."

Twisted at the hips with my mouth crushed against the soft cotton of her shirt where it was stretched over her chest, I nodded wordlessly. She hugged me tighter, heedless of my state; I was covered by mud and mud alone. "I love him too, the jerk," she murmured, tucking my head up under her chin like I was a child. "You hurt so bad Peter, I don't know how you can stand it..."

Ain't ashamed to say I jerked in her arms, head knocking her chin, in surprise. "You're an empath?" The odds of that were shit; a vampire's gift wasn't inherited.

She hushed me, pulling me back against her chest 'til I was kneelin' in the mud, holding tight to her. "No," she explained quietly. "It's...different. It's like...I see things how you see them, tinged with your emotions, your thoughts. Jasper says that's probably why Edward couldn't read my mind, because I was destined to be my own kind of mind reader. It's not strong yet, I have to be focusing, and touching still and everything still comes out hazy."

"Consider yourself lucky," I replied. "Jasper can't get nothing on me, unless I let 'em, and it ain't easy."

She didn't say anything in response for a long time, simply sat in the mud with me, rocking us both. We'd twisted and shifted 'til she had me wrapped in her arms, my head on her shoulders. "I can't let him hurt you like this," she murmured, long after the sun had set. "I love him to death Peter, but I won't let him hurt you like this."

I laughed, tired and broken, shaking my head. "Ain't no stoppin' it, Baby. Just...just don't get all up-innit. Pretend you didn't know. Be happy with him."

"I feel like I don't know him at all," she whispered. "Like...he isn't the Jasper I fell in love with. What do I do with that? What do I do now?"

"He ain't the Jasper I knew either," I said, in feeble reassurance. "He ain't the Major who made me."

"So where does that leave us?"

A/N Oh ho, but no. There probably won't be much Peter/Bella, sorry to say.


End file.
